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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. \ 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 



MORAL RECOVERY, 



BHOWTKG THB 



POWER OF RELIGION IN EXTREME CASES. 



This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesns came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 

St. Paul, 



EDITED BY ABEL STEVENS. 




PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 



900 BIULBKRRY-8TKEET. 







^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 

CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern 
District of New-Yorlc. 






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PREFACE 



The following narratives are all facts from real 
life. They are also what the title of the volume 
purports, — examples of the grace of God in ex- 
treme cases. The case of the Earl of Roches- 
ter is well known, through the narrative of Bishop 
Burnet ; the other sketches are mostly new in 
this country. They are all well adapted to their 
design — namely, the encouragement of penitent 
sinners, even if among " the chief of sinners." 

A more remarkable instance of moral recovery 
can hardly be found than that from intemperance 
here given. 

A work like this is liable to one serious ob- 
jection: its examples may lend encouragement 
to the neglect of religion till a ** more convenient 
season." The sufficient reply is, that as matters 
of real fact in the history of Christian experience, 
they should not be suppressed on account of any 
such unjustifiable use ; that while the reckless 



may thus abuse them, there are many cases of 
sincere but despondent penitence to which they 
may aflford necessary encouragement and guid- 
ance ; that as examples of " the goodness of 
God," they will more generally lead to repent- 
ance than to hardness of heart; and that the 
mournful warnings against the procrastination of 
religion, given by these redeemed sufferers, will 
tend much to avert such an abuse. 

The narratives are given in the simple, una- 
dorned language in which they were mostly 
found ; for they are designed for the humblest 
minds, while the astutest may, nevertheless, find 
in them some of the sublimest revealings of the 
human soul. 

Take this little book, fallen and broken-hearted 
man, and learn the infinite compassion of thy 
heavenly Father, who has " no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked," and whose angels rejoice 
" over one sinner that repenteth more than over 
ninety and nine just persons which need no re- 
pentance." 



CONTENTS 



PAGS 

Earl of Rochester 7 

Hon. Robert Maxwell, of the British Navy 19 

Charles E , the Crippled Sailor. ^ 39 

Conversion and Experience of William How.vrd, 61 

Extraordinary Recovery from Intemperance 75 

H G , A Striking Instance of Divine 

Grace 131 

John Warren Howell — Perfect Peace Exem- 
plified 145 

The Vessel of Gold ; or, Sanctified Affliction. 154 
Last Days of the late Earl of Ducie 180 



REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

OF 

MORAL RECOYERY. 



EAKL OF EOCHESTEE. 

This nobleman was distinguished in his life as a 
great wit and a great sinner ; and, in his last ill- 
ness, as a great penitent. Such he is described 
by the excellent Bishop Burnet, who personally 
knew him, and attended him on his death-bed. 

Before this period, he had advanced to an un- 
common degree of impiety, having been a zeal- 
ous advocate in the cause of atheism. He had 
reveled, likewise, in the depths of debauchery, 
and had openly ridiculed all virtue and religion. 
But when, like the prodigal in the gospel, he 
came to know himself, horror filled his mind, 
and drew from him the keenest self-reproaches. 
He was, in his own eyes, the vilest wretch on 
earth ; and often wished that he had been a beg- 
gar, or a captive in a dungeon, rather than that 
he should ao grossly have offended God. 



8 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

On a journey into the west of England, some 
time before his end, he had been arguing with 
pecuhar vehemence against God and religion ; 
not, however, without feeling, even at the time, 
the sting of an accusing conscience. 

One day, at an atheistical meeting in the house 
of a person of quality, he undertook to be the 
champion of infidelity, and received the applauses 
of the company ; but here again his conscience" 
reproached him, and he exclaimed to himself, 
"Good God! that a man who walks upright, 
who sees the wonderful works of God, and has 
the use of his reason — that such a one should 
bid defiance to his Creator !" 

These successive convictions, however, gradu- 
ally wore off; and it was not, as above hinted, 
till his last illness, which continued about nine 
weeks, that he appears to have been truly con- 
vinced and savingly converted. Then he saw 
the " exceeding sinfulness of sin," and learned 
the value of the atonement on which his hopes 
of pardon were founded. "Shall the joys of 
heaven," exclaimed he, "be conferred on me? 
mighty Saviour, never, but through thy infinite 
love and satisfaction ! never, but by the pur- 
chase of thy blood !" 

The Scriptures, which had so often been the 
subject of his merriment, now secured his esteem, 



OF MORAL mX'OVERY 



and inspired delight ; for they had spoken to his 
heart: the seeming absurdities and contradic- 
tions, fancied by men of cornipt and reprobate 
judgments, vanished ; and he was brought to 
receive the truth in the love of it. The fifty- 
third chapter of Isaiah, which was repeatedly 
read to him by Mr. Parsons, was made particu- 
larly useful to him. Comparing it with the his- 
toiy of our Saviour's passion, he saw the fulfill- 
ment of a prophecy written several ages before, 
and which the Jews who blasphemed Jesus still 
kept in their hands as an inspired book. He 
confessed to Bishop Burnet that, as he heard it 
read, " he felt an inward force upon him, which 
did so enlighten his mind and convince him, that 
he could resist it no longer : for the words had 
an authority which did shoot like rays or beams 
in his mind ; so that he was not only convinced 
by the reasonings he had about it, which satis- 
fied his understanding, but by a power which 
did so effectually constrain him, that he did ever 
after as firmly believe in his Saviour as if he had 
seen him in the clouds." 

He had this chapter read so often to him, that 
he " got it by heart, and went through a great 
part of it," says the bishop, " in discourse with 
me, with a sort of heavenly pleasure, giving me 
his reflections on it, some of which I remember. 



10 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

* Who hath believed our report?^ * Here/ he 
said, * was foretold the opposition the gospel 
was to meet with from such wretches as he was.' 

* He hath no form nor comehness ; and when we 
shall see him, tliere is no beauty that we should 
desire him.' On this he said, 'The meanness of 
his appearance and person has made vain and 
foolish people disparage him, because he came 
not in such a fool's coat as they delighted in.' 
Many other observations he made, which were 
not noted down ; enlarging on many passages 
with a degree of heavenly pleasure, and apply- 
ing various parts of it to his own humiliation 
and comfort. * O my God,' he would say, * can 
such a creature as I, who have denied thy being 
and contemned thy power, be accepted by thee ? 
Can there be mercy and pardon for me ? Will 
God own such a wretch as I am ?' 

"His faith now rested on Christ alone for 
salvation, and often would he entreat God to 
strengthen it ; crying out, ' Lord, I beheve ; help 
thou mine unbelief.' In this state, however, the 
grand enemy of souls failed not to assault him 
with many temptations, often suggesting ideas 
highly prejudicial to that happy temper of mind 
with which God had now endued him. * But I 
thank God,' said he, on one of these occasions — 

* I thank God that I abhor them all ; and by the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 11 

power of grace, whicli I am confident is STif- 
ficient for me, I have overcome them. It is the 
malice of the devil, because I am rescued from 
him; and it is the goodness of God that frees 
me from all my spiritual enemies.' " 

He gave many proofs of the sincerity of his 
faith and the soimdness of his repentance ; among 
which, his earnest desire to prevent the evil effects 
of his former writings and example is particularly 
to be remarked. He gave a strict charge to the 
persons in whose custody he left his papers, that 
all his profane and lewd writings and pictures 
should be burned ; and he desired all who at- 
tended him to publish abroad, that all men might 
know, "how severely God had disciplined him 
for his sins by his afflicting hand ; acknowledg- 
ing that his sufferings would have been most just, 
had they been ten times more heavy." His for- 
mer visitations, he confessed, had produced some 
slight resolutions of reforming, arising from the 
present painful consequences of his sins; but 
now he declared that he had other sentiments 
of things, and acted upon other principles ; that, 
in short, he possessed so great an abhorrence of 
all sin, that he would not commit a known one 
to gain a kingdom. 

To his former companions in sin he sent awful 
messages, and to some, who visited him, he gave 



12 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

tlie most solemn warnings. To one gentleman 
in particular he said: "0 remember that you 
contemn God no more. He is an avenging God, 
and will visit you for your sins ; and will, I hope, 
in mercy touch your conscience, sooner or later, as 
he has done mine. You and I have been friends 
and sinners together a great while ; therefore I 
am the more free with you. We have been all 
mistaken in our conceits, and our persuasions 
have been false and groundless ; therefoi-e, God 
grant you repentance !" Seeing the same per- 
son again the next day, he said, "Perhaps you 
were disobliged by my plainness with you yes- 
terday : I spake the words of truth and sober- 
ness ;" and, striking his hand upon his breast, 
said, " I hope God will touch your heart." 

Knowing the rock on which himself had foun- 
dered, he expressed an earnest wish that his son 
might never prove one of those profane and 
licentious wits who pride themselves in denying 
God and scoffing at religion ; but that he might 
become an honest and religious man, and that all 
his family might be educated in the fear of God. 

Further, that none whom he had been the 
instrument of drawing into sin might lose the 
benefit of his sincere repentance, he subscribed 
the following recantation, and ordered it to be 
pubhshed to the world : — 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 13 

'•'For the benefit of all those whom I may- 
Lave drawn into sin by my example and encour- 
agement, I leave to the world this ray last dec- 
laration, which I deliver in the presence of the 
great God, who knows the secrets of all hearts, 
and before whom I am to be judged, that, from 
the bottom of my soul, I detest and abhor the 
whole course of ray former wicked life; that I 
think I can never sufficiently admire the good- 
ness of God, who has given me a true sense of 
my pernicious opinions and vile practices, by 
which I have hitherto lived without hope and 
without God in the world; have been an open 
enemy to Jesus Christ, doing the utmost despite 
to the Holy Spirit of grace ; and that the great- 
est testimony of my charity to such is to warn 
them, in the name of God, and as they regard 
the welfare of their immortal souls, no more to 
deny his being or his providence, or despise his 
goodness ; no more to make a mock of sin, or 
contemn the pure and excellent religion of my 
ever-blessed Redeemer; through whose merits 
alone, I, one of the greatest of sinners, do yet 
hope for mercy and forgiveness. Amen. 

"J. Rochester." 

" Delivered and signed in the presence of 

"Ann Rochester, 
••/u7i«19, 1680. R. Parsons." 



14 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

We now return to the death-bed experience 
of this converted nobleman, and mark the power 
of religion upon his mind in that important sea- 
son. He seemed to have no desire to live, ex- 
cept to testify the truth of his repentance, and 
to bring glory to God, "If God," said he, 
"should spare me yet a little longer here, I 
hope to bring gloiy to his name proportionably 
to the dishonor I have done him in my whole 
life past; and particularly by endeavoring to 
convince others, and to assure them of the dan- 
ger of their condition, if they continue impeni- 
tent ; and to tell them how graciously God hath 
dealt with me." 

And when he came within the nearer views 
of death, about three or four days before his 
departure, he said, "I shall now die. But O, 
what unspeakable glories do I see ! what joys 
beyond thought or expression am I sensible of ! 
1 am assured of God's mercy to me through 
Jesus Christ. O how I long to die and to be 
with my Saviour !" 

Thus died this eminent subject of regenerating 
grace, July 26, 1680, being only in his thirty- 
fourth year : yet, so was life worn away by 
his long illness, and the effects of his former 
licentious course, that nature gave up without a 
struggle. In him was strikingly verified the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 15 

remark of the apostle in another case, that 
** where sin abounded, grace did much more 
abound." The account published by Bishop 
Burnet gives the particulars of his conversion 
more at length, and the various conversations 
on divine things between them, under the title 
of " Some Passages in the Life and Death of 
John, Earl of Rochester;" of which the late 
Dr. Johnson entertained so high an opinion that 
he says, " The critic ought to read it for its ele- 
gance, the philosopher for its arguments, and 
the saint for its piety." 

Mr. Parsons, chaplain to Lady Rochester, 
preached and printed a funeral sermon for his 
lordship ; in which, after mentioning many of the 
same or similar circumstances with the bishop, 
he makes the following remarks : — 

" Having thus discharged the office of an his- 
torian, in a faithful representation of the conver- 
sion and death of this great sinner, give me 
leave now to bespeak you, as an embassador of 
Christ, and, in his name, earnestly to persuade 
you to be reconciled to him, and to follow this 
illustrious person, not in his sins any more, but 
in his sorrow for them, and forsaking them. If 
any have been drawn into sin from his example, 
let them be persuaded by the same example to 
break off their sins by repentance. God knows 



16 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

there are too many that are wise enough to dis- 
cern and to follow the examples of evil, but to do 
good from these examples they have no power. 
Such as these I would beseech, in their cooler 
seasons, to ask themselves, * What fruit had ye 
in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? 
for the end of those things is death.' Be per- 
suaded, then, with a humble and obedient heart, 
to meet the blessed Jesus, who is now on the 
way and comes to us in the bowels of a Saviour, 
beseeching us to accept the pardon and peace 
offered in his holy gospel.'* 



On this aflfecting story let us reflect : — 
1. How awful is sin against God! Though 
grace abounded in the case of this profligate 
man, yet what agonies did it cost him ! and how 
dreadfully did his sin find him out, in bringing 
him, through painful disease, to an untimely 
death ! Nor let any sinner abuse the grace of 
God, by continuing in sin, because this vile 
wretch found grace at the last. Remember, 
such instances are rare ; — few, very few sinners 
truly repent on a death-bed ; we have but one 
such instance recorded in all the Scripture. To- 
day, then, while it is called to-day, turn and 
live! ''Harden not vour hearts, lest he swear 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. iV 

in his wratli that you shall not enter into his 
rest." 

2. Reflect upon the power of the Holy Spirit 
in teaching and convicting sinners. This was 
that power which did so effectually constrain 
him. 0, sinner, pray that the Holy Spirit may 
thus work effectually in you ! 

3. Remark and admire the extent of divine 
grace here manifested. The blood of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth from all sin ; — 
that blood is of infinite value; — it is sufficient 
for the vilest ; — Jesus is a Saviour to the utter- 
most. wretched sinner, or miserable back- 
slider, who art ready to despair at the greatness 
of thy sins, come to Jesus ; — he will in no wise 
cast thee out ! 

4. Remark the effect of real conversion. 
Lord Rochester did all he could to prevent the 
evil consequences of his wickedness. It is a 
mournful reflection that he could not undo 
them : indeed the baneful effects still remain. 
make not light of sin, though it be pardoned, 
and you who profess religion beware of deceiv- 
ing your own souls ! If ye love not Jesus, nor 
honor the Father, nor are influenced by the 
Holy Spirit dwelling in you, so as actually to 
forsake your sins, to make all reparation in your 
power for them, and to make the holy law of 

2 



18 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

God the rule of your conduct, it is because you 
have not the spirit of Christ, and are none of 
his. May God give us grace, hke the example 
before us, to receive the truth in the love of it ; 
and in our dying moments to receive, as we hope 
he did, the consolation of the gospel, and enter 
into peace through Jesus Christ our Lord and 
Saviour. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 19 



THE LAST DAYS 



THE HON. ROBERT MAXWELL, 

OF THE BRITISH XAVY. 



BY HIS BPw OTHER, 



May 9th, 1841. — I much regret not having 
earlier kept a diary of my intercourse with my 
dear brother Robert. His windpipe being ex- 
tensively diseased, he has been able to speak but 
little, and only in a whisper. I could wish that 
I had recorded his remarks ever since I first saw 
him, on his return from sea ; they w^ould have 
exhibited a most interesting state of mind ; for 
every successive interview has developed how 
graciously God has been preparing him for a 
peaceful departure. 

Robert, in his twenty-fourth year, was very 
little known to me. For the last twelve years 
he had been at sea, and for seven years had 
never left the Mediterranean. I had been long- 
in expectation of the arrival of the ship to which 



I 



20 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

he belonged ; and, ignorant of the state of his 
health, I was anxious to get him afloat again as 
soon as possible. For this purpose I had writ- 
ten to some naval acquaintances, and among 
others, to my dear Christian friend, Admiral 

, who lived near Portsmouth. I was very 

anxious to make Robert acquainted with him. 
I wrote to him to call on the admiral, who, I 
said, was a pious man, and desired much to 
see him. It was in reply to this letter, that 
Robert gave me the first intimation of his feel- 
ings on the subject of religion. He wrote to 
me from Sheerness, dated April 4th, 1841 :— 
" If I go to Portsmouth, you may depend on it 

I shall not fail to see Admiral . I am 

sorry to say I am not religious myself ; but I 
love reho-ious people. Mine is a curious state : 
it is one that worldly people would call religious ; 
but I am not so. I would dread to take God's 
name in vam, or to do anything of that kind. I 
have a fancy that if I say my prayers of a 
morning, all will go well during the day. The 
same of a Sunday ; I would not miss church for 
fear the following week would not prosper ; but, 
still, I am not religious. I feel I am not; I 
think more of the world than of my soul ; yet I 
would as soon think of mocking religion openly, 
as I would of shooting myself this moment. I 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 21 

have at first told 3^ou this, that you may know 
what kind of person you will find in me." 

I blessed God for the hope which this letter 
gave me ; and I felt doubly thankful for it on 
leaiTiing his physician's opinion of his delicate 
state of health, the extent of which I had not 
known, nor, indeed, had he himself. 

He came to me. In my first conversation 
with him on eternal things he showed a meek 
and docile spirit, and a thirst after that knowl- 
edge which maketh wise unto salvation. Feel- 
ing God's word in the hands of the Holy Spirit 
to be the great instrument of conversion, I se- 
lected the Lord's message to David, by the 
mouth of Nathan, as the first passage to bring 
before him. He listened with intense interest, 
while I endeavored to point out how the first 
movement in a sinner's salvation comes from 
God. David was in a hardened, indifferent state. 
God sent his word by his prophet. David was 
ready to apply it to any one but himself, until 
the Spirit, whose office it is to convince of sin, 
brought it home to himself, personally, saying, 
** Thou art the man !" Assured that the success 
of all my efforts, imder God, on behalf of my 
dear brother's soul, must depend on his being 
enabled to appropriate Scripture to his own case, 
I endeavored to show him hov*^ " whatsoever 



22 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

things were written," even in tlie historical parts 
of the Bible, " were written for our learning, 
that we through patience and. comfort of the 
Scriptures might have hope." Rom. xv, 4. I 
then proceeded to point out, in the case of David, 
the blessed effect of thus receiving and appro- 
priating God's word to ourselves ; that the im- 
mediate result of so doing was to bring us into 
the presence of an offended God, in the spirit 
and with the language of the fifty-first Psalm ; 
to give us, as therein contained, the true estimate 
of sin, as committed " against God," and trace- 
able to the corruption of our common nature as 
its source ; a true view also of the character of 
God, not only as a God of mercy but of justice, 
who, as such, is to be approached, as David ap- 
proached him, only through the atoning sacrifice 
of Jesus ; the terms, " blot out," " wash," 
" cleanse," " purge," pointing forward to the 
blood to be shed on Calvary, just as we now, 
with clearer light, look back, by faith, to the 
same purifying fountain. 

He had not, as yet, given me any opportunity 
of knowing his views on the great essentials of 
divine truth ; but I was not long left in doubt : 
he took an early occasion of unbosoming himself 
to me; and I found that a deep conviction of 
sin had taken place in his mind ; and that God's 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 23 

Spirit had not only performed this his first work, 
but had also directed him to Christ, so far as to 
see him to be the sinner's only hope. In one 
of his first conversations, he complained to me 
that he feared his repentance v/as not of the 
right kind. The Lord enabled me to direct him 
to portions of his word which gave him light on 
this subject, and much subsequent comfort. I 
shall briefly allude to them. 

I felt that a solemn duty had devolved on me 
to direct my dying brother to " behold the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 
I told him that the repentance which he sought 
was to come from Christ, who was exalted to 
give it, (Acts v, 31 ;) that gospel repentance, 
which meant a change of mind, was the result 
of knowing the evil of sin, as exhibited in the 
crucifixion of Christ. I refen-ed him to Zech. 
xii, 10, where God's Spirit enables the convinced 
sinner to look upon him whom, by his sins, he 
has pierced : and the immediate consequence is 
the mourning of true repentance — that " godly 
sorrow" which "worketh repentance to salva- 
tion not to be repented of." 2 Cor. vii, 10. I 
directed him also to Jeremiah xxxi, 19 : "After 
that I was turned, I repented ; and after that I 
was instructed, I smote upon my thigh." Du- 
ring this conversation, dear Robert's frequently 



24 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

uplifted eyes, filled with tears, bespoke the inter- 
est with which he entered into all that was said. 

Being anxious to knovf something of his expe- 
rience before he came home, I asked him if his 
mind had been directed much to the subject of 
religion on board his ship. He said that about 
eight years ago he was under very serious im- 
pressions ; that they passed away, leaving, how- 
ever, a small voice, which kept him from run- 
ning into the depths of wickedness into which 
others had plunged ; yet he felt now that he 
wa^ as bad as any of them ; that he was worldly 
and careless, with far greater hght than others 
possessed ; and there was a pang often in his 
conscience which told him he W£is not right. 
He added, that he had long entertained a par- 
ticular ]-espect for religious people, and greatly 
envied" them. He mentioned the many narrow 
escapes he had had, having four times fallen 
overboard when he was unable to swim ; that 
his feet had often, while aloft, slipped, and he 
would have been precipitated sixty or seventy 
feet, had he not caught hold of a rope ; but 
tliat no providential deliverancce of himself or 
of others had left an abiding impression on his 
mind. 

As long as he was able to bear it, he was 
driven out for an hour or two dayly, and he 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 26 

greatly enjoyed himself on these occasions. He 
could see a Father's hand in all the beauty 
which surrounded him. During one of his first 
drives, he gave to the person Ti'ho accompanied 
him the following simple expression of his feel- 
ings, which, at my request, was at the time 
committed to paper : " Although I feel very ill, 
I am very happy ; and how thankful I ought to 
be to God for bringing me home to friends 
whose conversation on religious subjects gives 
me such comfort. I often ask myself where I 
should have been if I had been cut off in my 
sins ; and I feel thankful for this sickness, as it 
has brought me to think of eternity. how 
hard the human heart is ! We see many sad 
scenes and awful deaths at sea, which, for the 
time, make an impression on us ; but these are 
very soon forgotten, and we think no more about 
them. I never was a swearer or blasphemer ; I 
have heard much of this, but it made me shud- 
der ; nor was I ever an open profligate. All 
this proceeded, not from love to God, but from 
fear. I once fancied this was religion; but it 
was only morality. If it please God to restore 
me to health, (which I do not expect,) I trust I 
shall be enabled to return to my profession a 
diiferent person than I was when I left it. When 
at C , there were serious impressions on my 



26 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

mind ; but when I returned to my ship, I could 
♦ not resist the scoffing and ridicule of my com- 
panions." He mentioned also the great pleasure 
he took in the quiet hour which I gave him after 
dinner, when we read Scripture and prayed ; he 
remarked, they were the happiest hours he had 
ever spent ; and he added, with animation, that 
he could not now imagine how people could call 
the subject of religion gloomy, as it gave him 
such comfort and delight. 

Maij 13 th. — Before receiving the Lord's sup- 
per, in conversing with Rev. Mr. , he said, 

" It is an awful thing for a sinner to appear 
before God whom he has long offended." He 
seemed to derive much comfort from being 
reminded that the Sa\dour who died for him was 
the Judge before whom he was to appear. The 
memorials of the dying Saviour's love refreshed 
his spirit. 

He expressed some very remarkable senti- 
ments on the subject of prayer, which showed 
how very precious Christ was to him, and how 
taken up he was with a sense of his glory. He said 
that he had been always in the habit of address- 
ing God the Father in prayer ; but he had been 
thinking that, as Christ was God, direct prayer 
ought to be made to him also ; that he thought 
he was wrong in not praying more to Christ. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 27 

We talked over many of the instances of prayer 
to Christ. He seemed much struck with the 
remark that Christ could not be overlooked 
when the Father was addressed in prayer, as 
it was only through him any could approach 
the Father. John xiv, 6, Eph. ii, 18, Heb. vii, 
25, also much struck him, where the sinner ap- 
proaches God ; while the ability to save is rep- 
resented as devolving on Christ in his interces- 
sory character. 

May IQth. — I found him perusing Romaine's 
" Triumph of Faith ;" (the only human book he 
had read during his illness :) he said he liked it 
greatly; "but," added he, "there is nothing 
hke the Bible ; I never tire of that ; I never feel 
lonely or weary while reading it." 

After an absence of some time, I found him, 
on my return, in a delightful state of mind, hav- 
ing evidently made rapid strides in his heavenly 
course, which is well described in a letter, an 
extract from which is inserted, as it gives an 
insight into his state : " Robert is still left with 
us ; and though we should not be surprised if 
his happy spirit were to take its flight any day, 
yet he may last some time. His chief suffering 
has been from severe cough and soreness of 
throat, and he labors under great oppression, 
almost amounting to suflfocation ; yet he is kept 



28 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

from acute pain, for which he expresses himself 
most grateful. It is quite impossible to give 
you any idea of the blissful state of this dear 
youth. There is no excitement — nothing ap- 
proaching to enthusiasm; but all is unvaried 
calmness and tranquillity. Never, perhaps, did 
a dying believer more fully exhibit in his expe- 
rience the truth of that Scripture, 'Thou wilt 
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on thee.' Isa. xxvi, 3. He has been given a deep 
sense of his own sinfulness in the sight of an 
infinitely holy God, and, therefore, from within 
himself he can derive no material for comfort; 
but it would do your heart good to see him 
raise his eyes to heaven, and, with a smile of 
extraordinary sweetness, thank God for the gift 
of his dear Son, whose finished work and perfect 
righteousness not only afford him an assurance 
of safety, but yield an abundant source of rejoic- 
ing to him. His eyesight is very good, which 
he considers a great blessing ; for he is able to 
read his Bible, which is never out of his reach ; 
and he says that his sleepless nights are very 
happy, for he is able, then, specially to realize 
the promises which he has been reading during 
the day. The following anecdote will interest 
you, and show his great love for the Scriptures. 
I was inadvertently taking his Bible away fi'om 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 



his bed ; and he said, with a playful but very 
expressive smile, 'Don't take that; if you do, 
you take my all !' And, in truth, that blessed 
book has done great things for Robert. He 
returned from sea, I will not say ignorant of, or 
indifferent to, its contents, for he was neither; 
but he knew not Christ Jesus, as the only hope 
of a sinner; but now his acquaintance with 
Christ, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, 
enables him, even in the recollection of all his 
past sins and imder a sense of all his present 
unworthiness, to take up the triumphant chal- 
lenge of the apostle, (Rom. viii, 33, 34,) 'Who 
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ?' 
&c., and this silences every disturber of his 
peace." 

On my return home, I noticed that his " de- 
sire to depart and to be with Christ" had greatly 
increased ; and he often told me that he felt 
much need to struggle against an impatient 
spirit. He remarked that he needed patience to 
abide the Lord's own time, and that he was 
much assisted in his conflict by considering the 
patience of Christ, and his entire submission to 
his Father's will. A remark was made, that it 
was common to say of persons in affliction, that 
they were "patient and resigned," and that it 
was too often supposed that the whole of religion 



30 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

consisted in this frame of mind. This drew from 
him the following striking sentiment : " 0, pa- 
tience and resignation are great blessings ; they 
make the sufferer pleasant to himself and oth- 
ers ; but they can only carry us to the grave — 
they cannot do more. Christ must carry us 
beyond it!" 

On going to his room one day, as usual, to 
bid him good night, I found him dozing, with 
his Bible open before him, and his finger resting 
on the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel. He 
suddenly started, and said, *'I like to have this 
blessed book open before me ; for I can only 
sleep a few minutes at a time, and when I open 
my eyes it is so pleasant to light upon some 
sweet passage;" and he alluded to the sheep 
and shepherd mentioned in this chapter, a simile 
under which he very often loved to contemplate 
the relation between the believer and his Lord. 
He mentioned, as a signal mercy, that his 
dreams were of a pleasant kind ; that the sub- 
ject-matter of them was generally some portion 
of Scripture ; and that, in sleep, he would often 
pray in language which he could distinctly re- 
member on awaking. 

At another time he said it was extraordinary 
how new light broke in upon the believer's 
mind as he advanced ; that, at first, he had been 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 31 

occupied, to the exclusion of everything else, 
"with those passages of Scripture which spoke of 
the great salvation which had been wrought by 
Christ ; but that now he dwell very much on 
those which directed him forAvard to the resur- 
rection. Speaking to him further on this sub- 
ject, I found that it was not so much the resur- 
rection of the body, as the thought of being 
with Christ the moment after death, which was 
his source of consolation and rejoicing. I ad- 
mitted that the last dying believer before the 
death of Christ, and the first we read of after 
it — the thief on the cross and Stephen — both 
seemed, at their last moments, to derive joy from 
the source whence he was seeking it ; as did Sti 
Paul, in the expression of his desire to " depart 
and to be with Christ ;" but that Scripture 
abounded with passages to the effect that the 
believer's joy was by no means completed until 
the reunion of soul and body. He replied, with 
an energy beyond what I thought he was capa- 
ble of, " 0, I know that the resurrection of the 
body is a legitimate source of hope and comfort ; 
but still the glorious fact of being with Christ, 
and thus separated forever from sin, and freed 
from conflict, I consider a mountain which will 
eclipse every blessing that is beyond it. My 
poor body has been such a hinderance to me, I 



32 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

love to think of getting rid of it ; I am sure that 
if once with Christ, the redemption of my body, 
and every other blessing, will come in due 
course ; but I love to allow the first to occupy 
my whole thoughts." After telling him that 
the resurrection included this view, and that we 
should receive the whole of what Scripture held 
out to us for comfort, he concluded, much ex- 
hausted, yet very feehngly, " I have been but a 
short time a true believer ; I have had time to 
know but little ; my views must, therefore, be 
very simple ; and I feel assured that to be with 
Christ includes every blessing which follows it." 

August 8th. — He broke a long silence by say- 
ing, " What a free gift it is ! We are apt to 
think God is love, only on account of Christ. 
Christ Avas the gift of his love." He dwelt on 
God's pardoning and pitying for his own name's 
sake, when he could see nothing in the sinner to 
induce him to do so, and pointed to Ezek. 
XXX vi, 22. 

On a Sunday, he said he never was so much 
struck before, that the day was a type of eternal 
rest. On some remark being made on the sub- 
mission of Christ to his Father's will, he replied, 
" If we could always keep Christ before the 
mind, we should find all in him : humility — pa- 
tience — love " — dwelling on each word, until, at 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 33 

last, his voice failed him. Again he said, at the 
prospect of beholding Christ, *' It is a glorious 
rest for creatures such as we are ; it seems al- 
most too wonderful, but it is all for his glory ,* 
if it were not so, it could not be !" 

He wrote the following letter to a brother, 
about whose spiritual welfare he often expressed 
himself much interested : — 

''I thought you might be pleased to see the 
handwriting of your dying brother; I cannot 
write much ; but what I would say is, think of 
the love of God. See it in me ; he has pardoned 
me, and, in my dying hour, has given rae a 
knowledge of Christ. 0, do n't be like me and 
wait for sickness ; begin at once and glorify him. 
I thought, once, that I could not be a sailor and 
a Christian ; but, dearest brother, you can be 
both a soldier of Christ and a soldier of your 
country. Good-by ; God bless you !" 

August 30th. — For many days he has been 
hardly able to articulate, his throat being in- 
tensely sore, and his cough and every other 
symptom much aggravated ; and we often leaned 
over his bed, eager to catch what we conceived 
would be his last word. 

At all time^ even when under his greatest 
sufferings and oppression, he would sweetly 
smile an affirmative to the inquiiy if he was in 



34 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

" perfect peace." He said that he had been 
thinking of "the wretched creature possessed 
with devils whom Jesus had cured, and who 
wished to be with him ; but Jesus sent him 
away, and told him to go back to his friends," 
&c. He thought he could apply this to his own 
wish to be with Christ ; but Jesus told him, as 
it were, still to stay a while here with his friends, 
to tell them " how great things " the Lord had 
done for him. In the evening, on being asked 
if he was in perfect peace, he said, "Yes; but 
my thoughts are weak ; my body is a burden." 

For some days before his death he suffered 
much from a sore on his back, caused by fric- 
tion ; his agony during the dressing of this was 
extreme. On one occasion he could not, for a 
moment, refrain from showing his uneasiness ; he 
soon, however, rallied, and when he had in some 
measure recovered himself, he sent for me, and 
requested me to pray with him and for him ; 
evidently flying to prayer as an oft-tried and 
never-failing resource, when the pressure of his 
poor body bore heavily on his mind. 

A verse which had, throughout his illness, 
yielded him much comfort and support, was now 
a rich treasury of both to him : " He knoweth 
our frame ; he remembereth that we are dust." 
Psa. ciii, 14. This often cheered his drooping 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 35 

spirit, weighed down beneath the burden of the 
flesh. As his end approached, he looked for- 
ward with much anxiety for the day on which 
the doctor was to visit him. When he had last 
seen him, he received, with very evident sorrow, 
the opinion that he might last for weeks ; but his 
disease had taken such a turn since then, that he 
expected to hear much more welcome tidings on 
his next visit. After the interview was over, 
he asked me the doctor's opinion ; and when 
I announced to him that he thought he could 
not last many days, and that he considered 
this his farewell visit, he exclaimed, "0, de- 
lightful !" 

On Sunday, the 12 th of September, (the day 
preceding his death,) he several times put out 
his arm to me to feel his pulse, accompanied by 
an anxious "Well, will it be long?" The 
oppression on his bodily frame almost over- 
whelmed him ; he ceased to expectorate, and 
gasped for breath, the failure of which seemed 
now to constitute his chief suffering, w^hich was 
veiy great. He requested that the servants, 
who had come to bid him farewell, should kneel 

down and join in prayer. Seeing crying, 

he said, " You must not cry, you must not ; we 
shall meet again :" and, several times during the 
cveninof, a smile would invite one after another 



3G REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

of US to his bedside, that he might press our 
hands in his. ^ . 

We did not expect him to outlive this day. 
Late at night it was said to him, " He will never 
leave you." " No !" he replied, " I am sure he 
never will." About midnight, I asked him if he 
was enabled to look to Christ alone. He an- 
swered, (and they were his dying words,) " To 

WHOM ELSE CAN I LOOK? I HAVE NO ONE 
ELSE !" 

The agonies of death commenced at about 
half-past twelve ; he put out his arm for me to 
feel his pulse ; I told him it would soon be over. 
By a great effort, he partially raised himself for- 
ward ; and then followed the farewell scene be- 
tween the dying saint and those to whom he had 
become inexpressibly dear. His calmness and 
perfect collectedness were astonishing ; but these 
were quite in character with the whole of his 
deportment throughout his long illness. He cast 
his eyes around the room ; and as soon as they 

rested upon D , who had been his greatest 

earthly comfort during his illness, a peaceful 
smile irradiated his countenance, seeming to dis- 
sipate the gloom which approaching dissolution 
had cast on it. It invited her to receive his 
farewell, and, doubtless, though unexpressed, his 
blessing. I took her place next, and was fol- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 37 

lowed by a brother whom he dearly and justly 
loved, on being similarly invited by him. But 
perhaps the most touching scene was the sum- 
mons, to his bedside, of one of his attendants, 
who had greatly endeared himself to him by his 
imremitting and affectionate care, and who had 
attracted his notice, and greatly excited his inter- 
est, by his frequent and attentive perusal of the 
Bible during the night-watches. To this servant 
he had, some days before, given his Bible, saying 
that it was the richest treasure he could leave 
him, and that he had seen how it had supported 
him in the hour of trial. 

After an affectionate farewell to his other 
attached attendant, he evidently bade adieu to 
this world and all things therein. His intellect 
remained perfect until his last half hour. This 
was evidenced by his joyous smile and nod of 
assent, when asked as to his peace. But, from 
the moment he had taken his last farewell of us, 
everything here below was manifestly dismissed 
from his mind. The last was a solemn moment 
never to be forgotten by those who witnessed 
it, all kneeling near his bed. As long as intel- 
lect remained, his uplifted eye showed that in 
prayer he found his refuge. After much con- 
vulsion in the upper part of his frame, he became 
perfectly quiet; his countenance assumed a 



38 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

placid expression ; and after a few sighs, with 
considerable intervals between them, his long- 
cherished wish was gratified— the earnest and 
oft-repeated prayer of his soul was answered. 
At a quarter past two, on the morning of Sep- 
tember 13, 1841, he fell asleep— he was with 
Jesus ! 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 39 



THE CRIPPLED SAILOR. 



Charles E was born in a small village in 

Suffolk, England, in 1804. At that time his 
father was a sailor ; but when peace was pro- 
claimed he lived on shore, and got employment 
in farm work. At the age of about fourteen, 
tlie lad began a seafaring life ; and by the time 
he was twenty he had made several long voyages. 
In the winter of 1826 he sailed on a voyago 
to the Mediterranean, in the brig " Rapid." 
All went on well till she reached the Gulf of 
Lyons, when an event occurred which nearly 
cost the young man his life. It was blowing a 
smart gale, and the brig was scudding under 
two double-reefed topsails. The watch on deck 
were all asleep, except the man at the helm, 
when, about two o'clock in the morning, they 
were roused by the loud cry of Charles, who 
had fallen overboard. In a few minutes the 
alarm was given all over the vessel, but before 
anything could be done the struggling sailor was 



40 ItEMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

left a great distance astern. The captain, at the 
first alarm, ordered the ship to be put about; 
and when he thought they were far enough to 
windward, he tacked again, ordered the long- 
boat to be cleared, and hung lights over the bow 
of the brig, hoping that, if the poor man was 
still afloat, he might see them and make toward 
them. And so it turned out ; for shortly after- 
ward he hailed, and called out to them not to 
run over him. The long-boat was then lowered 
and manned ; but the night being very dark, with 
a heavy sea running, nothing could be heard or 
seen of the man for some time, till he called out 
again to them in the boat not to strike him with 
their oars, for he was quite near them. Even then 
it was long before he was rescued ; for when at 
length they caught sight of him and were about 
to lay hold of him, a wave came and washed 
him away to a great distance, and this happened 
again and again ; but as he was known to be an 
excellent swimmer, the sailors did not despair 
of saving him ; and, after great trouble and ex- 
ertion, he was picked up almost exhausted, hav- 
ing been in the water an hour and twenty 
minutes. 

It was a great wonder to all how his strength 
could have lasted so long, for when he fell over- 
board he was very heavily dressed in a thick pea- 



OF MORAL RECOVERV. 41 

jacket; but while in the water he managed to 
pull oflf his jacket and trowsers and shoes, which 
enabled him to keep afloat much better than 
with them on. Still it was a great wonder, and 
only by the mercy of Divine Providence, that he 
was saved at this time ; and yet he did not re- 
gard God as his deliverer, but attributed his 
rescue entirely to the exertions of the captain 
and crew, and his own superiority in swimming ; 
at this time God was not in all his thoughts, nor 
indeed in any of them. He had long been a 
hater of the Bible, and had given himself up to 
all the follies and vices to which sailors are par- 
ticularly tempted. It was with him as it is 
with multitudes besides, who, as the psalmist 
says in the 107th Psalm, " go down to the sea in 
ships, and do business in the great waters ; these 
see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in 
the deep;" yet they do not " praise the Lord for 
his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the 
children of men." 

It was some time after this accident, and when 
he had come home from that voyage, that he 
met his old captain in London, and was prevailed 
on to accompany him again to the Mediterranean ; 

but on the passage out Charles E fell ill ; 

and on the vessel arriving at Trieste, he was con- 
veyed to the hospital. His condition there was 



42 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

very wretched ; so that he made several unsuc- 
cessful attempts to escape, ill as he was, and 
regain his ship. At length, hearing that the 
ship was about to sail, and that he was to be left 
behind, he made his escape, and in a fit of des- 
peration, swam off to the vessel, and reached it 
just previous to her weighing anchor : he was, 
therefore, of necessity brought back to England, 
and remained in London until he regained his 
health. 

Shortly afterward he embarked for the Bra- 
zils, and while there deserted his vessel, on ac- 
count of bad usage from his officers ; and fearing 
to seek another berth in that port, lest he should 
be discovered, he formed a resolution, destitute 
as he was of both money and clothes, and igno- 
rant of the country, to travel to another port, 
five hundred miles distant. After making some 
inquiry, as secretly as he could, respecting the 
route he must take, he began his toilsome jour- 
ney ; but he soon repented of his rash under- 
taking, and had he not dreaded the derision of 
his former shipmates, he would have returned to 
his ship ; but looking upon death itself as more 
welcome than this, he persevered. 

The first part of the journey lay across the 
country, where he was exposed to continual and 
imminent danger from wild beasts and venomous 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 48 

reptiles, against which he had no means of de- 
fense; but from these he was mercifully pre- 
served. This, however, was not the only, nor 
perhaps the chief evil the wanderer had reason 
to apprehend. His sufferings from fatigue and 
hunger were often intense. The only food he 
could obtain was such as could be gathered from 
the bushes, and now and then a cocoa-nut. On 
one occasion, when much pressed by hunger, he 
saw a cocoa-nut tree at some distance, and has- 
tened to the spot. It was with difficulty that 
he could climb the tree, so weak was he with his 
previous exertions and privations ; and when at 
length he reached the fruit, he had scarcely 
power to break oflf a single nut from the stalky 
At length, however, he succeeded, and secured 
his prize. The poor wanderer had to carry it 
some miles before he could find a stone large 
enough to bruise and remove the husk of the 
nut, and to break its hard shell ; and then what 
was his agony at finding the shell empty ! 

Still he passed on, occasional 1)'^ obtaining relief 
from the natives of the country ; and after wan- 
dering nearly three weeks, scarcely knowing 
whither, he reached the sea-shore. The sight 
of land to a weather-beaten mariner, after a long 
and dangerous voyage, is not more welcome than 
was this prospect to Charles E . Though 



44 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

still far from the port to which his steps were 
directed, he had now a sure direction toward it ; 
besides this, he frequently fell in with fishermen, 
who relieved him, and lodged him at night. 

At length, when not many miles distant from 
his port, the progress of the wanderer was un- 
expectedly barred, and his hopes frustrated, by 
a river nearly three miles in width, which there 
liowed into the sea. If he had, at this time, 
possessed but half the strength and power of 
endurance which supported him in the Gulf of 
Lyons, this river would have been but a slight 
hinderance ; but exhausted with extreme toil, and 
the effects of privation, he could do nothing but 
sit down on the river's bank almost in despair. 
After waiting three days for means to cross, a 
native passing by on a raft was prevailed upon 
to convey him to the opposite bank. A few 
hours afterward, and the perilous journey was 
safely finished. 

The sailor's sufferings were not, however, 
then ended. Instead of being able to sail imme- 
diately from that port, as he had hoped, he was 
seized with a severe illness, and for nearly two 
months was dayly expecting to die. But the 
same kind and gracious Providence which had 
watched over him in his wanderings, and deliv- 
ered him from destruction, still provided for his 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 45 

sustenance and recovery. The people of the 
town had compassion on the perishing stranger, 
and suppUed him, without prospect of recom- 
pense, with food and' shelter ; and, by the bless- 
ing of God on this disinterested kindness, health 
and strength slowly returned. 

No salutary impressions appear to have been 

made upon the soul of Charles E by all that 

he had now passed through. He could feel, and 
afterward recount with gratitude, the kindness of 
these strangers ; but he felt no thankfulness to 
the Giver of all his mercies, his Preserver and 
bountiful Benefactor. He was yet far from God, 
though God was "nigh unto" him. Are you, 
reader, in a like position ? 

In course of time he was enabled to leave the 
country where he had passed through many 
dangers, and experienced many mercies, and 
worked his way to India ; thence, after serving 
for some time on board a man-of-war, he returned 
to England, shattered in health, and still hard- 
ened in heart against God. 

At Sheerness, the crew of the ship in which he 
had sailed was paid otf, and he took a passage 
to London in a packet-boat, intending to return 
to his native place to recruit his health and see 
his relations. Having no confidence in his own 
prudence, and fearing that if he retained in his 



46 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

own possession the money he had received as 
wages, it would be squandered in " the pleasures 
of sin," he intrusted it to a shipmate. This man 
deceived him and disappeared, and the poor 
sailor reached London almost penniless, after 
3'^ears of toil and privation. 

To add to his distress, he was again seized with 
illness, and unable to return home ; he gained 
admittance into the Dreadnought hospital-ship, 
where he continued a year and a half, until he 
was pronounced to be incurable. Even then the 
poor and destitute sailor had no proper concep- 
tion of that far more dreadful, and, though not 
incurable, hitherto uncured soul-disease with 
which he was afflicted, and for which only one 
remedy can be found. He believed that his 
body was at the point of death, but that his soul 
was on the brink of eternal death appears to 
have given him no real concern. He longed to 
return home to his native village to die ; and 
though for years he had neglected to write to his 
friends, so that they supposed him already dead, 
he now made known his wishes to them. Great 
was their joy (though it was joy mingled with sor- 
row) to know that he, whom they had mourned 
as dead, was yet alive ; and, though in circum- 
stances of poverty themselves, they contrived to 
send sufficient money to him to bear his charges 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 47 

homeward, where he arrived after an absence 
of more than ten years. 

The wanderer's native air, and the kind atten- 
tions of his relatives, did more for him tlian 
medicine had done. He recovered his health so 
as to be able, two years after his return home, 
to go again to sea. Some time after this he 
married. But he was yet to be the sport of 
winds and waves ; or rather, he was to be led 
through other dangers and hair-breadth escapes, 
that in the end he might be brought to a knowl- 
edge of himself as a rebel against God, and of 
Christ as a great and merciful Saviour. And it 
ij thus that the wise and gracious God often 
leads men by a way that ** they know not," and 
a way which they would not have chosen, but 
which, at length, they find to have been " a 
right way." 

Some time after he had again gone to sea, 
when returning from a voyage, and within a few 
hours* sail of port, a heavy squall of wind struck 
the vessel, and snapped the foremast, so as to 
tear up the deck, and the whole crew were 
thrown into sudden confusion. As speedily as 
possible the wreck was cleared ; but the sea ran 
high, and the wind continued to blow Avith fury, 
so that the crew Avere in great peril, for the 
vessel labored heavily, and shipped much water. 



48 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

In a few hours almost everything on deck was 
washed away — boat, cook-house, bulwarks, and 
stanchions ; and in this condition, with an almost 
unmanageable wreck, and the storm still raging, 
the crew were dismayed at discovering break- 
ers ahead, and land at no great distance. With 
great difficulty the anchors were let go, and 
then the remaining mast was cut away; but 
death seemed inevitable to all on board. In this 
extremity, however, they were delivered from 
their fears. The wrecked vessel still floated, 
and she was^ kept from striking on the rocks, 
which every minute threatened her destruction. 
After three days of fearful suspense, the storm 
abated, and a steamer was sent out to their 
rescue. 

During the whole of this critical and anxious 

time, Charles E was perhaps the only one 

on board who expressed no alarm, and gave no 
token of a desire to be saved from the \dolent 
death which seemed so near to all. He exerted 
himself, indeed, so strenuously that his strength 
gave way, and he became, for the following 
three years, a helpless invalid ; but to these ex- 
ertions he was not driven by fear: so far from 
this, he declared to his shipmates, during the 
storm, that if the ship went down, he should 
make no effort to save himself; and that, for his 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 49 

part, he was perfectly indifferent as to whether 
she rode out the gale or not. Frequently, in 
subsequent dangers, while priding himself on 
doing his duty to the owners of the vessels in 
which he sailed, he showed the same indifference 
to life or death. On one occasion especially, 
Avhen, as in the present case, all hope seemed 
lost, he professed himself very little concerned 
about his own safety, saying that if putting out 
a hand would save him, he would not trouble 
himself to do it. It is difficult to account for 
such insensibility as this ; but it is certain that 

Charles E was, at these times, hardened by 

the deceitfulness of sin ; and, being reckless of 
consequences, he cared but httle how soon his 
life was ended. 

It would take long to recount all the ad- 
ventures this sailor passed through, and the 
many great dangers in which his life was pre- 
served, indifferent as he was to its preservation. 
Having been offered the command of a small 
trading vessel, for which his former experience 
had well fitted him, he undertook it, and held 
the appointment for several years, at the end of 
which time he met with an accident which en- 
tirely disabled him for further service. His 
small vessel coming in contact, at night, with a 
large brig, the violent shock of the colhsion 
4 



50 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

knocked him down, and so injured his spine that 
thenceforward, as he said, "his deatli^ warrant 
seemed sealed." It was indeed strange that he 
or any of his small, crew were saved to tell of 
the disaster of that night ; hut they were ena- 
bled to get their vessel into port, while the 
larger and stronger brig received such damage 
by the shock as shortly afterward to sink. He 
reached home crippled and hopeless of re- 
covery. 

He was at this time about forty-three years 
old ; but the various hardships of his life, and 
the sufferings he had endured, had long since 
robbed him of the vigor of youth, while the last 
stroke had produced more than the decrepitude 
of age. For some time, indeed, he kept his 
bed entirely ; by degrees he gathered sufficient 
strength to sit up a few hours in the day, and 
at length, by the aid of a stick, to walk a short 
distance from his home. But regardless alike of 
judgment and mercy, the disabled seaman was 
an enemy to God, and a derider of the way of 
salvation, as revealed in the Bible— without 
Christ, without hope. 

A few years ago, Mr. V , a home mission- 
ary, was informed that a poor crippled sailor was 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 51 

living in the town in which he labored ; and some 
accounts which he received induced him to seek 
the man's acquaintance. This crippled sailor was 
Charles E . 

Several attempts to obtain this acquaintance 

were made by Mr. V in vain. It was the 

avowed belief of Charles E that all the 

ministers of religion w^ere either hypocrites or 
enthusiasts, and that the Bible was a fable ; and 
he determined to have nothing to do with either 
the one or the other. His wife, and the family 
with whom they resided, begged him to receive 
the visits of the missionary ; but many weeks 
passed before he yielded to their wishes, and 
then it was with an evident determination to re- 
sist all attempts for his spiritual welfare. Never- 
theless, he allowed the Scriptures to be read, and 
prayer to be offered in his apartment. 

By slow degrees, and after many visits, the 
missionary so far gained the confidence of the 
poor invalid as to induce him freely to converse 
on his past life, and on the feelings of his mind 
with respect to religion. On this latter point he 
spoke with great reserve and caution, occasion- 
ally giving utterance to those common-place 
objections to Christianity which have again and 
again been satisfactorily answered by its fol- 
lowers. After some montlis' acquaintance with 



52 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Hy^ Y ^ however, he became more open and 

unreserved, and began apparently to take pleas- 
ure in asking a variety of questions about the 
Bible ; but evidently with a wish to puzzle his 
visitor, and obtain a momentary triumph over 
him, and not with a desire of finding the truth. 

Mr. V • then loaned the crippled seaman 

several books which he thought adapted to re- 
move doubts, and to furnish materials for con- 
sideration, accompanying the loan with earnest 
prayer that the eternal Spirit of truth would 
sanctify the reading of these volumes, and make 
them the means of enlightening the poor man's 
soul. 

The circumstances in which the sailor was 
now placed were so far favorable as to give him 
ample time for reflection. It was evident to 
himself, and to all around him, that death could 
not be very far distant; and probably it was 
with more solicitude than he cared to express, 
that he entered upon the studies which, until 
now, he would have repulsed with disdain. 
There are very few indeed who so completely 
disbelieve the Bible as to have no fears lest, after 
all, it may be true ; and who cannot, consequent- 
ly, look death in the face with entire composure ; 
and though, in times of danger, and when ac- 
tively employed in devising means for meeting 



OF MORAL KECOVERY. 53 

it, this man had been remarkably unconcerned 
about the future, it is not imlikelj that now he 
would have been glad of some satisfactory evi- 
dence that his principles were safe and immova- 
ble. Reader, are you one of those who make a 
boast of infidehty, and profess to look upon the 
Bible with contempt ? Permit us, in all kind- 
ness, to ask, first — Are you really acquainted 
with its contents ? and next — Have you no un- 
welcome and lurking suspicion that, after all, it 
may be true ? And if it be true — what then ? 

Whatever were his secret thoughts, the sailor 
read the books which had been loaned him by 
his Christian visitor ; and the more he read, the 
less was there of the air of defiance which had 
marked all his previous intercourse. Especially 

did this disappear when Mr. V spoke to 

him of the love of Christ. When this subject 
was introduced, the poor invalid began to listen 
with eagerness and emotion ; and ere long, the 
tone, manner, and earnestness of his questions 
were changed from those of exulting skepticism 
to apparently genuine anxiety to knoAv the truth. 

But the man who has willfully hardened him- 
self against the mercies of God, and resolutely 
given himself up to a determination to disbelieve, 
if possible, the gospel of his grace, may find it 
hard to bear up against the current of infidelity. 



54 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

even when lie discovers that it is carrying him 
onward, with fearful rapidity, to wretchedness 
and despair. It was so with this man. 

" I would give the world," said he passionate- 
ly, " if I could believe ; but my wretched heart 
is as hard as a stone ! Do you think," he added, 
inquiringly, " that a man can believe what and 
when he pleases?" 

He was told by his visitor, in reply, that there 
is in the Scriptures such internal evidence of 
their truth as to command the belief of every 
sincere inquirer; and that, if he were sincere 
and earnest in his desire for the cordial reception 
of the truth, his doubts would be removed, see- 
ing that Christ himself declared, " If any man 
will do h^s will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God." 

While the sailor's mind was in this state of 
doubtful obscurity and painful toil, seeking for 
light and rest, but perplexed and harassed by 
those skeptical thoughts which he had once 
courted and harbored, a Christian lady visited 
the town for the benefit of her health. Mindful, 
however, of the higher concerns of another 
world, and desirous of attempting something 
for her heavenly Master, even while among 
strangers, she turned her attention to the abodes 
of poverty, sorrow, and sickness, and thus was 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 55 

introduced to the crippled sailor. The state of 
his mind — trembling, as it seemed, between hope 
and apprehension, faith and unbelief — greatly in- 
terested her; and to impart the information 
which he needed, she loaned him " Newton on 
the Prophecies." 

The first volume was read with apparently 
little effect ; but after entering on the second 
^'olume, his attention was arrested, light broke in 
upon his mind, and diligently comparing what 
he read with the Scriptures themselves, every 
previous doubt of their divine inspiration van- 
ished. His mind being thus convinced, his 
former prejudices were completely dispersed, 
and an intense eagerness for a more intimate 
knowledge of the Bible turned him from every 
other pursuit. " How much — how much 
liave I to do !" was his frequent exclamation ; 
*' and how short a time to do it in!" And with 
these feelings, it was not unusual for him to 
employ half the night in reading and searching 
for the truth like one who searches for hidden 
treasure. 

And he found it ; but the discovery was inex- 
pressibly painful. If the Bible be true — and of 
this he never again doubted — what must be his 
own personal condition ? Guilty and lost ! If 
heretofore his I'est had been broken while doubt- 



66 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Ing God's truth, and seeking intellectual satisfac- 
tion, it was doubly broken by the knowledge 
which that very satisfaction had imparted to his 
soul. He was perishing eternally. His own 
willful blindness and rebellion had brought him 
to the very borders of everlasting destruction. 
The more convincing the proofs Avere of the divine 
authenticity of that book which all his life he 
had neglected and hated, the more certain was 
it that he, the neglecter and hater of the Bible, 
was in a condition of most awful danger. He 
had no doubts now ; — they were changed into 
appalling certainties. 

But while the gospel wounds, by the grace of 
the Holy Spirit it heals; and the heart which 
sovereign mercy renews, is first, by the same 
mercy, broken. If the sinner be shown his lost 
condition, he is also pointed to One who is able 
to save to the uttermost all who come unto God 
by hira, and is told that there is strong consola- 
tion for those who have fled for refuge to lay hold 
on the hope set before them. And if the soul 
be pressed down with the weight of a burdened 
conscience, it is directed to Him who says, 
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy- 
laden, and I will give you rest." Matt, xi, 28. 

In the midst of his deepest disti-ess the sailor 
was not utterly hopeless. His feehngs and ex- 



OF MORAL RECOVEKY. 57 

pressions were something like those of one who 
said, "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he 
would not have showed us all these things, nor 
would as at this time have told us such things 

o 

as these." Judges xiii, 23. Thus this penitent 
sinner could say, " What an awful state men are 
in, and I among the worst ! But I can now see 
God's hand to have been with me throughout 
ray whole life, though I would not see it before. 
I bless him that he would not let me perish in 
the midst of my wickedness ; shall I perish 
now — now that I have been led by him to see 
my guilt and danger, and to seek for his mercy ?" 

At length it was his happiness to obtain that 
" strong consolation " which the gospel alone 
can give ; and he could adopt the language of 
the apostle as his own, " Being justified by faith, 
we have peace with God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ : by whom also we have access by 
faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice 
in hope of the glory of God." Rom. v, 1, 2. 

The Apostle James tell us that " faith without 
works is dead ;" but true faith — that which is 
the gift of God, and leads the sinner to Jesus, 
as the only Saviour — is always shown by its 
peaceable and holy effects. The Lord himself 
declares that *' Except a man be born again, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God." John iii, 3. 



68 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

And when this change has been wrought by the 
Holy Spirit, the man becomes " a new creature ; 
old things are passed away — all things are be- 
come new." 2 Cor. v, 17. Thus was it with 

Charles E . A great and extraordinary 

change had taken place in him, which filled with 
surprise all who knew him. In the place of 
haughty pride they beheld humility. Instead, of 
daring contempt of God's authority and claims, 
they saw an earnestness to know and do his will. 
The mind which once dehghted in impurity, and 
reveled in the recollection of past transgressions, 
when the lusts of the flesh were fulfilled, now 
shrank with horror at the remembrance of his 
former conduct, and magnified the forbearance 
of God which had spared so ^ilc a sinner. The 
tongue which once blasphemed was now em- 
ployed in prayer and praise ; and he who once 
hated the Bible, and would willingly have ban- 
ished it from the world, could now say, with 
deep emotion, " I love this precious book more 
and more every day I live. I wonder at my 
former ignorance, when I could see nothing 
right in it ; but now, read it as often and as care- 
fully as I will, I can see nothing wrong." 

A few months more, and Charles E was 

dying. Had he deceived himself, and had others 
been deceived in him ? Was it to be credited 



OF MORAL RECOVERT. 69 

that after a long course of sin and unbelief, God 
would accept the last feeble remnants of the 
sinner's life ? Was a clean heart created within 
him, and a right spirit renewed ? Was he indeed 
being made meet for the inheritance of the 
saints in light ? — was heaven the port for which 
he was bound ? These weresome of the ques- 
tions which the sailor asked himself while death 
was advancing upon him with rapid strides. 
And well might he solemnly and tremblingly 
question himself thus. Happy indeed is it for 
the sinner who even at last seeks and finds 
mercy in God's appointed way ; but far happier 
is he who has in early life given himself to God, 
and served him through the best years of youth 
and manhood. 

But " at evening time " it was '' light." Cast- 
ing his soul upon the grace of Christ, trusting 
in the atonement once offered for sin, and relying 
on the promises of God's word, he died "in hope 
of the glory of God — desiring to depart, and to 
be with Christ." 

" In looking at this case," writes another mis- 
sionary, who visited the sailor while on his death- 
bed, "we are constrained to say, ' Is not this a 
brand plucked out of the fire ?' — a miracle of 
sovereign mercy? Here can the hand of God 
be traced in the transforming influences of divine 



60 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

grace, and a fresh proof is given that our great 
Redeemer is ' mighty to save.' " 

Reader, the same Saviour is still waiting " to 
be gracious;" and the- language of heavenly- 
mercy to you is, " Let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and 
let him return unto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will 
abundantly pardon." Isa. Iv, 7. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 61 



THE CONVERSION AND EXPERIENCE 

OP 

WILLIAM HOWARD. 



Mr. Howard* was bom at Westmeath, in Ire- 
land, in 1721. In early life he was intended for 
the ministry ; but as he was of a dissolute turn 
of mind, he soon disappointed the expectations 
of his friends ; and, after spending some time at 
the L^niversity in Dublin, he grew more and 
more abandoned in his conduct. In 1755 he 
was Mayor of Drogheda, where he carried on a 
very extensive business as a tallow-chandler and 
soap-boiler ; at the same time indulging in the 
most riotous excesses. He was engaged, after 
this, in various scenes of business and pleasure, 
till May, 1772, when, having spent his all in 
London, and being supplied by a friend with a 
small sum of money, he determined to retire 
to some obscure corner of the island. Provi- 
dence directed him in his wanderings to North 

" This sketcli is abridged from a nari'ative by Mil- 
ner, the Church historian. 



@3 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Ferriby, in Yorkshire. Being delighted with 
the situation of the place, he lodged at a pub- 
lic-house, and continued there about a year, un- 
known to every one. He caused in the neigh- 
borhood various speculations, but was generally 
supposed, as was really the case, to be a person 
hiding himself from his creditors. His moral 
conduct, however, appeared not at all reformed ; 
he frequented every fashionable vanity as far as 
he was able. He was, indeed, abstemious in the 
use of liquors ; but this, he has since owned, 
was the efifect of necessity, on account of his 
health. In other crimes, however, he was so 
notorious that few who had any regard for their 
characters would dare to associate with him. 
His conversation was particularly corrupt, and 
even shocking to some of those who were by 
no means remarkable for their purity of senti- 
ment. During this time, indeed, he was pretty 
constant at church ; but received no serious im- 
pressions till, about the end of the winter, he 
happened to ask his landlord what advantage 
the minister received for his attendance at the 
church to preach on the week-day once a fort- 
night. Being assured that this was without any 
emolument he thought, "This cannot proceed 
from the man's own fancy, nor would the devil 
instigate him to such practices ; it must be the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 63 

work of a good spirit. I have hitherto been 
used to despise him as crazy, but I will attend, 
and endeavor to understand him the next time." 
He did attend accordingly, but his thoughts 
were diverted, and no good effect ensued. The 
next Sabbath, however, was the time when it 
pleased God to send the an-ows of conviction 
into his soul. The subject of the discourse was 
the last judgment. He heard for himself, and 
was so affected that the scene appeared to be 
realized before him. In the distress which was 
now brought upon him he could not conceal his 
emotions, and that night he was unable to sleep, 
through fear. For six weeks after this he la- 
bored, prayed, read, meditated, and was alive for 
eternity. The country all around was astonished 
at the outward change which had passed upon 
him. He gave up all his former evil practices, 
could no longer bear vain company, and affected 
sohtude and retirement. 

At the end of six weeks he made his case 
known to me, in the presence of several others. 
The emotions of his soul on this occasion were 
past all description. His words conveyed very 
strong ideas, but his looks and gestures much 
stronger. His abhorrence of himself for sin was 
very remarkable. I never saw in any one more 
vehement longings for the grace of Almighty God, 



64 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

as he expressed himself. He declared that 
neither loss of money, nor anything else, affected 
him in the least. He said he saw from tlie 
Scriptures that he who believeth in Jesus -hath 
everlasting life ; but then he thought he must 
first get his heart softened. That notwithstand- 
ing he had labored for softness of heart, Ms was 
more flinty than any one's ; that he had been 
so vile, he feared God would not hear him ; that 
he had formerly, in a dangerous illness, made a 
strong resolution to be good, but was so far from 
keeping it, that he had grown more hardened 
than before ; that he had noAV reformed, indeed, 
from his gross practices, but was certain a change 
of heart was necessary ; and, till he obtained 
that, all his outward reformation would signify 
nothing. To love God heartily was what he 
aimed at, but was at a loss how to perform it. 
These and many other affecting things he uttered 
with many tears, and with a pathos beyond ex- 
pression. I could not but remark in him, as in 
all who turn to God, a very strong propensity 
to self- worthiness. I endeavored to fix his 
thoughts on the love of God in Christ to sin- 
ners ; and it was with difficulty I could engage 
his attention to this, so much was he taken up 
with thouglits concerning the acquisition of love 
to God, in order to procure his favor. It pleased 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 65- 

God at length to give me the liberty of uttering, 
and him the spirit of attention to the latter part 
of 2 Cor. V. I represented to him the somxe of 
all his sinful practices in the corruption of his 
nature, and endeavored to lay before him God 
in Christ, as beautifully described in that pas- 
sage ; and in a solemn manner, in the name of 
God, invited him to be reconciled to God, since 
it appeared to me that both God and he were 
desirous of being reconciled to each other ; God 
from l)is own book, and he from his words and 
behavior. He left me for a little time to pause 
in reading the chapter twice over by himself. 
On his return, how amazed were we to find the 
sudden alteration. He said he had now attained 
that particular softness of heart, and love to 
God, which he had wanted; that it was the 
view of God in Christ which had given it 
him. He was sure that the Holy Ghost had re- 
vealed the redeeming love of Christ to his soul ; 
that he was now completely happy ; that he 
had been on a wrong track, and never saw the 
way till now. The fear of wrath being now 
quite gone, he loved God more than he could 
express. 

Diudng this scene, the story of the woman in 
the seventh chapter of St. Luke, who had been 
forgiven much, being mentioned, he was in such 
5 



60 BEMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

a joyful rapture as exceeds the power of lan- 
guage to describe. All the graces of the new 
man, by turns, showed themselves in his dis- 
course and behavior. I never had so strong an 
idea, from any human description, of a sweet 
filial fear of offending a reconciled Father, as 
from liis conduct on this occasion. His knowl- 
edge of divine things amazed me. Not a hint 
could be started, but he understood and improved 
the thouglit before one had time to explain it; 
and many of those observations which are usually 
made by .sound divines on vital religion, he now 
uttered with astonishing clearness and heartfelt 
power. 

All this was the more wonderful, as he could 
not be supposed to be much acquainted with 
religious books, and knew very little of the 
Bible. 

The next morning, being Sunday, he came to 
me, and told me how he had been filled all the 
night with joy. 

Mr. Howard now, for several weeks, continued 
in the same frame of love and joy. He would 
not willingly talk on any subject but divine 
thmgs. He was always exhorting others, and 
praying for them most affectionately. He took 
private lodgings, being no longer able to bear 
the disturbance of a public -house. On occasion 



or MORAL RECOVERY. 6V 

of seeing a corpse in the grave, he declared he 
wished much., if it were God's will, to be in that 
corpse's place, that he might see his Jesus. He 
wrote letters to his former companions in wicked- 
ness. In short, his whole life was devoted to 
God and to his Redeemer. 

He had all along been full of joj, when, on a 
sudden, he was tempted to disbelieve the Scrip- 
tures, by an imagined contradiction in the difter- 
ent accounts of the two thieves who were cruci- 
fied with our Lord. The divine wisdom by 
wliioh he was enabled to overcome this tempta- 
tion was remarkable. He felt himself perfectly 
helpless. He went to bed in heaviness, but com- 
mitted the matter to God in prayer, and endeav- 
ored to take no notice of the suggestion. In 
the morning it was gone, and he recovered his 
wonted peace. 

Mr. Howard's residence among us, after his 
conversion, though not constant, yet gave us large 
and frequent opportunities of discovering his 
spirit and temper. Those who rejoiced at the 
change, and those who were displeased, (for there 
were those who were displeased,) each had an 
opportunity of observing whether it was some 
transient notion which had seized his imagina- 
tion, or a solid abiding alteration, which made 
him quite another man. 



68 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

I have seldom seen a more affecting proof of 
human depravity than in the language of some 
at the time of his conversion — that it was only 
a sudden fit of rehgion; he would soon return 
to his old practices. Their malignant wishes 
were, however, disappointed. He lived for years 
a shining exemplar of every Christian virtue, and 
had time to give us the most convincing proofs 
of the solidity of his conversion. I am aware 
of that rant and hyperbole which are the usual 
rocks of panegyrists. I hope to avoid them in 
this narrative, and to say, not what a warm 
imagination, or the effusions of friendship, may 
dictate, but what the severe laws of historical 
truth require. After all the abatements which 
the most severe critic may make to my supposed 
partiality, it must be allowed, by evGry one who 
knew him, that his religious joy was extraordi- 
nary ; that his fear of God was very exemplary ; 
that his faith, both for things spiritual and tem- 
poral, was of the most lively nature; that his 
charity was uncommonly fervent and steady ; 
and that, in genuine humility of soul, he was an 
edifying pattern to the Church of Christ. 

Mr. Howard for a number of years — till 
toward the eve of his life — lived in a state of 
joyful communion with God. ]S[ot a day passed, 
as he told me, without some exquisite taste of 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 69 

heavenly bliss. He could scarce dress himself, 
in a morning, with suflEicient haste, so eager was 
he to pour out his soul in thanksgiving to him 
whom his soul loved. His dehght in public 
worship was, I am well assured, little less than 
rapture ; his whole soul was exerted in it. His 
assurance of divine favor continued unclouded 
and vigorous long after the first impressions 
were gone off. His love of God, in his word 
and in his providence, appeared to be the result 
of a new taste and spirit ; and he so naturally 
and freely indulged it, in every company and 
conversation, that any one might see his heart 
was always set on things above, while his body 
was here below. 

That which particularly demonstrated the 
solidity of his joy, was the spirit of thanksgiving 
with which it was accompanied. Wonder, grati- 
tude, and love, were the constant effusions of 
his soul whenever he spoke of the Most High. 
His language was a continued series of blessing 
and praise, and that not in a formal manner, but 
with a spontaneous ease and liberal dignity of 
mind, as occasions and circumstances offered. 
I remember once walking with him in Hull: 
when he observed the hurry of business, and 
multitudes of people employed in it, he broke 
out into this ejaculation : " O what a family has 



-70 



REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 



our God dayly to provide for ! " This is one 
instance of that spirit by which he was con- 
stantly influenced, and of that joy in God which 
was ever breaking out in reverential admiration 
of the divine perfections. 

His godly fear was no less evident than his 
joy in the Lord. It is remarkable that in the 
accounts which we have of the primitive Chris- 
tians, converted imder St. Peter's first sermon 
at Jerusalem, it is said, " Fear came upon every 
soul." Acts ii, 43. This, I apprehend, was a 
very distinct perception from that compunction 
and remorse vv-ith which they were seized at first, 
and which is described by their being " pricked 
in their heart," and saying to the apostles, " Men 
and brethren, what shall we do?" Whatever 
distress might attend this sensation, it was efiect- 
ually removed by the joy of faith and the com- 
fort of forgiveness, and left only in their souls 
a filial, reverential fear, which had no torment, 
1 John iv, 18 — was consistent with the sincerest 
love, and preserved them in a state of son-like 
obedience. Amid the overflowings of his joy 
he retained a constant fear of sin, and particu- 
larly of that sin to which he was most exposed — 
I mean spiritual presumption. His constant 
remembrance of what he had been, and still 
might be if le-ft to himself, had an evident tend- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. *Il 

ency to preserve all his affections in their due 
equilibrium, and to temper his joy for the distin- 
guished favors which he had received. 

The strength and simplicity of his faith in God 
deserves also a distinct consideration. How this 
divine principle, the root and the instrument of all 
that deserves the name of virtue, operated in the 
production of his peace and joy, has been amply 
disclosed already. I would now consider it as a 
practical principle, diffusing itself over the whole 
of the Christian's conduct, and disposing him to 
exercise an unreserved confidence in God, even in 
the most trying circumstances. It is certain that 
the true secret of a happy life is to make every- 
thing we meet with an exercise of our depend- 
ence on the Son of God. As by faith alone the 
Christian is first made happy in the conscious- 
ness of divine peace and favoi-, so by the same 
principle, universally extended, he receives every 
good thing. While others depend on their own 
understandings, contrivances, and works, for hap- 
piness, he only trusts the Lord for everything, 
and as he trusts he finds the event to be. And 
to preserve this lowly, self-denying frame of faith, 
is of infinitely more consequence than to grow 
in doctrinal accuracy of knowledge : though this, 
if its ends are holy, deserves to be cultivated ; 
for a man may contend earnastly for the faith as 



12 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

a system of doctrine, who is an entire stranger 
to the exercise of it in the heart. Did we more 
closely examine ourselves from time to time — 
" Do I rely on the Lord in this or that particu- 
lar ? am I going continually out of myself, to 
receive of his fullness?" — ^we should feel more 
powerfully the importance of this distinction ; 
and faith in God, the singular, but much des- 
pised principle of a Christian, being brought 
into our whole conduct, would keep us under 
continual impressions of the divine perfections ; 
would endear Christ to us perpetually as a 
Saviour; would mortify all that self-sufficient 
and self-righteous pride which is so contrary to 
its nature, and would be accompanied with the 
sincerest integrity of manners, and the most gen- 
uine exemption from the spirit of the world. 

Such, I have abundant evidence for saying, 
was the life of Mr. Howard. He knew well the 
force of that Scripture : " He that spared not his 
own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how 
shall he not with him also freely give us all 
things ? " Rom. viii, 32. His calamitous and 
involved circumstances had, doubtless, brooded 
over his heart, and embittered his spirit with 
many a deep corroding care ; but, after his heart 
had found peace in Christ, he was enabled cheer- 
fully to leave all his affairs in the hands of a 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. '73 

gracious Father, and he passed through such 
scenes of distress and perplexity as would have 
saddened any heart that was unacquainted with 
God. He felt God was with him, his sure Friend 
and everlasting Portion. He could trust him in 
every exigency, and he was never disappointed. 
His little pittance of earthly support, from some 
relations in Ireland, was providentially continued 
to his death ; and his experience afforded, even 
in temporal things, the truth of that Scriptural 
adage : " As thou hast believed, so be it done 
unto thee." 

What remains concerning the manner of his 
death shall be said in a few words ; for the ex- 
treme languor into which he fell deprived him 
of an opportunity of showing that which, in dis- 
orders that admit of more vigorous intervals, he 
doubtless would have done. Finding himself 
rapidly decaying, he wrote to liis daughter, then 
in Ireland, a letter, which he desired might not 
be transmitted to her till after his decease, in 
which he expresses, among other things, the 
strongest confidence of his expectation of being 
soon called to his Father's house. Very soon 
after he was seized with slumberings, and con- 
tinued increasingly in this state till his death; 
yet he gave very strong proofs where his heart 
was amid all this debility. A friend of mine 



V4 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

asking him if he had anything to say to me, he 
uttered a very pathetic wish for spiritual bless- 
ings to be showered on my soul. He was ob- 
served amid his slumberings, at times, to sing 
hymns, and, a very httle before his death, ex- 
pressed his grateful wonder that God should 
ever take notice of such a rebel as he was. The 
last time I saw him, after waiting some time in 
the room while he remained insensible, he sud- 
denly opened his eyes, and looked seemingly 
Avith some peculiar meaning at me. I told him 
he would soon go to Jesus ; to which I heard 
him distinctly answer, " I hope I shall." 

And a little while after he was called to his 
eternal rest, March 2, 1689. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 76 



RECOVERY FROM mTEMPERANCE. 



It is now more than eleven years since I was 
plucked as a brand from the burning. When 
very young I often had serious impressions, 
which continued until I was in my twentieth 
year, and then I sought the Lord day and night 
for several months, until at last I was willing the 
world should know that I was seeking the sal- 
vation of my soul, and was willing that the re- 
proaches that the world casts on religion should 
rest on me, for God spoke peace to my poor 
heart, and I was made to rejoice. 

My mother wept for joy when the tidings 
came to her ears ; and had I only been faithful 
to God I should have saved one of the best of 

'' This remarkable case of recovery from intemper- 
ance will show that there is hope for the most wretched 
of men. It is given in the language of the restored 
man, as best adapted to its purpose. It appeared 
originally in the Christian Advocate and Journal, 
New-York, 1835, and was signed "^ Brand plucked 
from the Burning." 



'76 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

mothers many months of pain and grief. But I 
was unfaithful to God. For about three years 
I tried to beheve that I was a Christian, but the 
most of that time I only had the form of godli- 
ness. I commenced business for myself when' 
but nineteen years old, and as it was customary 
in those days to use liquor, and the business I 
followed was hard and laborious, and the men 
whom I employed expected their grog, as it was 
called, I formed a taste for it, and after a while 
I could take my bitters and grog without any 
difficulty ; for I got so that I wanted them in 
the morning, and then again at 10 o'clock, and 
in the afternoon; but I little thought where 
they were leading me. 

Often did the Spirit of God try to convince 
me of my danger ; but I had a shield against 
its call, which was, " Old professors do the 
same." 

I was much hurried in business, and neglected 
secret prayer, and at last I could spend the 
Sabbath at my boarding-house, which was a 
tavern, and the most of my time in the bar-room, 
but not Avithout my conscience accusing me ; and 
sometimes I would feel so condemned that I 
would get away in some secret place, and try to 
pray, and promise to reform. But while in this 
state I received a letter from my oldest brothei". 



OF MORAL KECOVERY. 77 

requesting- me to pray for him, saying " he be- 
lieved in the prayers of the righteous." This 
was like thunder to my heart. " What," said I, 
" inust my brother think of me when he knows 
that I have left off prayer ?" I resolved from 
that time to try and do better ; but my resolu- 
tions were soon gone, and my oft-repeated vows 
broken, until adverse winds began to blow upon 
me. I owed considerable money, and had money 
due me. I had just begun to fancy that I should 
be rich ; but one failure after another, and one 
loss after another, came on me until I could not 
meet my payments when due, and my creditors 
showed me no favor. I had writ after writ, and 
warrant after warrant, and execution after exe- 
cution, until I was obliged to stop my business 
and go on the limits. My property was sold for 
less than half the value, and I found myself in- 
volved in debt to a considerable amount. In 
this state I knew not what to do. I had for- 
saken the Lord, and almost every man that had 
pretended friendship to me now treated me 
with coldness ; and the Church, instead of trying 
to win me back to God, now slighted me. But 
religion was at a very low ebb in the place, as 
the best of the professors that I knew did not 
scruple to do many things on the Sabbath that 
would, in the State I was raised in, have been 



tS REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

sufficient to have indicted them. But I have no 
one to blame but myself. I cast no blame on 
any one. 

I might have reformed even then; but in- 
stead of reforming, I gave vent to my feelings, 
and tried to drown my troubles with strong- 
drink. I did not get beastly drunk, nor stagger 
about the streets; but it was one continual prac- 
tice every day, and a number of times in a day. 
I drank ; but still I should have shuddered at 
the idea of being a drunkard. Some of my 
friends saw my state, and warned me against 
such a course ; however I heeded none of them, 
but continued my course until at last I threw 
off all restraint, and after a while made myself 
believe in the doctrine of universal salvation. 
I finally got pretty well established in that doc- 
trine, and then my mind became more easy, as 
the fears of hell were gone, and from that I 
tried to he an infidel in full, and at times I 
was so. 

I followed this course for several years, until 
all my relations, except my mother, gave me up 
for lost. My friends were ashamed of me, and 
drunkards and infidels were my associates. 
None but drunkards can tell the feelings of 
the drunkard, and if you, my dear reader, are 
on your way to be one, O read this history with 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. Yd 

care ; for, blessed be God ! there is yet hope in 
your case. 

Are you slighted by your relatives and given 
up for lost ? So was I. Have you undertaken 
to j-eforra, and in a few days got worse than you 
were before ? Do not be discouraged. Try 
again and again, for I. broke a great many 
promises, and even oaths in this way. 0, poor 
drunkard, my heart is pained for you. I know 
how you feel in all the stages of your course, 
for I continued that course until I had come to 
the gates of death. Several doctors told me if 
I broke off from drink all at once I could not 
live, as my life was kept up by the liquor, for 
wlien the operation of that was going off I 
thought die I must. My nerves were much 
affected. I trembled like a leaf in the wind. 
My breath was short, my appetite was gone, 
and I dared not go to my bed without taking 
some liquor with me. 

I was in a business by which with little labor 
I could furnish myself with as much liquor as I 
wanted to drink. About a year before I stopped 
my course I went to see my mother, and she, 
dear woman, pitied me, and clasped me around 
my neck, and wept over me. O, the love of a 
mother ! My hard heart was broken. I prom- 
ised faithfully that I would reform, and I meant 



80 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

to do SO ; but how to set about it I knew not. I 
meant to ; I was fully determined to break off 
by degrees, and made an attempt, and for four 
or five days I made some progress ; but the first 
I knew I was still deeper in guilt than before. 
My thirst for liquor was such that I would have 
parted with my coat for rum sooner than have 
gone without it. the feelings, the awful 
feehngs, of the poor drunkard ! Who can paint 
them? They would be glad to reform, but, 
poor souls, they have lost the power. They 
stand and reason, and at times will start with the 
spirit of a man and say, *' Am I not a man, and 
can I not overcome this besetment?" — "Yes, 
I can, and will.^^ And then they try their 
strength, and for a while are masters ; but there 
is that hankering for liquor left, and they reason 
again with themselves : " I can use a little, and 
it will do me good ;" and the devil tells them 
that they can do ,it, and not get back' into the 
old track, but use it for their health. But soon, 
to their shame and sorrow, they find as did our 
first parents, instead of being wise and hke gods, 
they are more like devils. 0, how often did I 
fall in this way ! and the least trouble I had, I 
increased the dose. O, what a mercy it is that 
I am out of hell ! While I am now writing, my 
heart rejoices in the great goodness of God. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 81 

After I had conferred with several doctors, 
and they had told me I could hve but a very- 
few months, and some that I could live but a 
few days, and that when I did die it would be 
suddenly, and that they should not be sur- 
prised if I did not live a week, my feelings 
were like death ; but my appetite was not gone, 
and I suppose I drank at least three pints of 
brandy in a day, and sometimes half a gallon. 
But still I was not staggering about the streets, 
except in the morning, when I was so weak 
that I could not walk straight ; and I have in 
two or three instances heard men say, " What ! 
drunk so early ?" But by nine or ten o'clock 
they would think differently ; for the liquor 
would operate to brace the nerves and help me 
to walk, I now began to think of death, and 
felt that my time was short. I had relations 
that were respectable, and their characters were 
as fair as any, and the disgrace I was like 
to bring on them gave me pain. I could not 
bear the thought. I had tried to steel my 
heart against everything that told me ray soul 
was in danger of eternal damnation ; for when 
I could not hold on to my infidelity, I would fly 
to Universal ism. 

But all these props began to fail me, and I 
concluded that I must be damned ; for me to 
6 



82 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

hope in the mercy of God looked like presump- 
tion and mockery. O, how my poor sin-sick 
soul cried out for help ! No one but you, poor 
drunkard, that art now on the very verge of 
hell, can tell how I felt when closing my eyes 
at night. I would take some water to wet my 
parched throat, and say to myself, "Perhaps 
before I wake I may be in the torments of the 
damned, and never taste water again." Yes, I 
have looked at the water, and as I put the glass to 
my mouth, felt as though iwas drinking for the 
last time. 

ISTow, reader, you may try to paint my feelings, 
but you will try in vain. Here I was at a stand. 
To go forward was death; to stop was death. 
I thought I had but very little time to consider 
what to do. To ask God to have mercy on me 
I dared not, and in this extremity I called to the 
devil to come and help me. For a while I would 
have made a leag^ue with him ; but I called in 
vain. I was far away from my friends and 
home, and I came to the resolution to put an 
end to my life, and know the worst of my state ; 
but this God prevented. 

Yes, I was on the point of performing this 
deed by jumping overboard from a steamboat ; 
but some gentlemen, observing my actions, saw 
that I was insane, and caught hold of me ; or 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 83 

no doubt, instead of giving a history of the affair 
to this world, I should have been in the torments 
of the damned. Glory to God for his inter- 
position, by which I was saved from a watery 
grave, and my poor soul from the damnation of 
hell. " Bless the Lord, my soul !" 

ISTow, reader, I am coming to that part of my 
history where I resolved to do better. I had 
often come to this resolution, but not as I now 
did. Liquor had a different effect on me from 
what it had before. I was miserable all the time, 
both day and night, and at times I was delirious. 
I saw no peace. My poor soul was troubled, 
but for what I hardly kneAV. I increased the 
quantity of my drink, and several times to that 
degree that I was helpless and senseless. 

what a mercy it is that God kept me alive ! 
I wonder — yes, it appears a miracle to me — that 
I did not die ; for I thought I had taken enough 
to kill four or five men. But still the blessed 
Jesus was seeking me, and not willing to give 
me up. the boundless mercy and love of 
Jesus Christ ! Well might I adopt the language 
of the poet and say : — 

"0 to grace liow great a debtor 

Dayly I 'm constrain'd to Tbe ! 
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 

Bind my wand'ring heart to thee." 



84 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

I came to the determination while I was 
under the influence of liquor, that I would 
drink no more. Yes, when I took the last 
drink of rum, I said, " Now I have done, and 
in a very little time I shall die, and I deserve 
to die;" but if death was all, and when this 
poor body should lie a lifeless lump of clay, 
that was my end, death would have been a 
welcome messenger ; but there was a dread of 
future evils. 

The first night I slept until about daylight 
in the morning, as I had taken a good dram, 
as I called it, to wind up on. I arose, and 
was weak and trembling. The first thought 
was of my vow made to stop. I walked 
about until breakfast was ready, but not with- 
out being tempted to drink. I almost yielde(^ 
to the temptation, but thought 1 would try to 
eat my breakfast without, and take a cup of 
coffee. My hand trembled so that I could 
scarcely hold my cup. I drank one cup of 
coffee, but could not eat. I arose from the 
table and walked out. Minutes were hours to 
me. Several times I was about drinkinf?, and 
then I w^ould stop. My breath was short. I 
got out of my chair many times, thinking that I 
never should breathe again. The people asked 
me what was the matter witli me, and told me 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 85 

I looked like death — that I looked frightful. I 
told them I was sick, but did not tell them what 
ailed me, nor how I felt. In this way I passed" 
the first day. Night came on, and I walked out 
and in until about ten o'clock, and then time 
came to retire. I was among strangers, and 
went to bed ; but sleep was gone. Several 
times I got up to breathe, as my breath would 
stop. I got into a doze several times, and felt 
as though there were a hundred pins sticking in 
my flesh. I would take the water I had taken 
to my bed in my hand, and view it by the lamp 
I kept burning, and then take a drink of it. 
how good it tasted to my parched throat ! Then 
I would say to myself, "Perhaps this is the last 
water that I ever shall be pennitted to drink. I 
may soon be in hell, caUing for water in vain." 
Then I would try the strength of my infidelity, 
and say, "There is no God. When I die, that 
is the last of me. The Bible is all a hoax- 
there is no truth in it." But then the Spirit of 
God would again shine in my heart, and I looked 
back to the hour that God spoke peace to my 
poor soul, and I was driven from that foundation, 
and found myself adrift on the fearful waves of 
despair. Then I would reason for universal sal- 
vation, and say, " God is love. Surely my pmi- 
ishment is enough to satisfy him. Every man is 



86 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

punished here for his sins. Jesus Christ tasted 
death for every man, and it is his will that all 
mankind should be saved, and he hath all power. 
His blood was spilled for all men, and he will 
save all. I need not fear to die. The power 
of Christ is above that of the devil; he will 
save me." 

In this way my mind would, for a few min- 
utes, be more easy; but then again it would 
sound in my ears, " The wages of sin is death ;" 
" And in hell the rich man lifted up his eyes, 
being in torment ;" and the lost are " reserved 
in chains against the day of judgment, suffer- 
ing the vengeance of eternal fire." And then 
again I would find myself deprived of every 
prop. To ask God to have mercy, I dared not ; 
but I still resolved that I would drink no more ; 
I would die sober; and if my wretched death 
would alarm any one, that they might not come 
to the like peril, I should be glad. The night 
appeared to be as long as any year I had ever 
seen ; but at last the light of the morning broke 
forth, and, as I went out, all nature seemed to 
mourn. 

I had eaten nothing through the day past ; I 
was very weak; and everything I saAV seemed 
to be clad in mourning. People looked like 
shadows, and sometimes I thought I was among 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 87 

ghosts, and then I would start at the fearful ap- 
proaches of death. I tried to take some break- 
fast, and the people seemed to pity me, and tried 
to get me to eat ; but I could swallow but very- 
little, and what I did made me worse. I walked 
about in one place after another to find peace : 
but how true that Scripture that says, " There 
is no peace to the wicked !" I suffered many 
sore temptations that day to drink, and consented 
many times in my mind before I was aware it 
was a temptation. The enemy brought new 
pleas to me that I could harldly resist. He told 
me, as did the doctors, that I ought to stop by 
degrees, and then I might live ; but I surely 
would die if I did not drink a little. If I took a 
little, I might wind off in that way, and then, 
when my mind was settled, I might seek for 
religion ; but as I was, it was of no use to pray, 
for it would b.e presumption for such a poor 
wicked wretch as I to pray — I must stop gradu- 
ally, not all at once. This argument had like to 
overcome me, for I thought if it would put me 
in the way of salvation I ought to yield to it : for 
I thought it was from God. But then my oft- 
repeated vows came to my mind : I saw how 
many times I had tried to gradually break oft', 
and could not, foi* just as soon as I drank one 
glass, I had no more power to resist. Sometime<> 



88 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

I would drink cider or beer, and try to break off 
on them ; but, ere I was aware, I would be deeper 
in the mire of intemperance than before I tried 
to stop. When these thoughts came to m)'- 
mind, I again resolved to die as I was, rather 
than return to my old course. But what a 
day of suffering ! I dreaded the night that was 
approaching ; it made me shudder for fear of the 
consequences that might attend it ; but it passed 
off much the same as the second night had. 
On the morning of the third day I would have 
thanked God, if I dared, that I was alive ; but I 
dared not take his name on my lips, nor so much 
as indulge one thought of mercy from him. This 
day passed off much the same as the day be- 
fore, only I felt worse. I had many pains that 
I had not had before. The fourth night came 
on, and what feelino-s with it ! I felt a degree 
of gratitude that I was out of hell. I dozed a 
little ; but, the first I knew, I Avould be on my 
feet, ready to run I knew not where. In this 
way I spent five nights and days, growing worse 
and worse. 

I thought the second day was as bad as it 
could be, or that I could not feel any worse 
than I did ; but my feelings were worse than I 
have language to express. On the fourth day 
I gave myself up several times to die, and won- 



OF MORAL EEC O VERY. 89 

dered, when I came to myself, that I was not 
dead. But the fifth day arrived — memorable 
day for me ! In the morning, how I suffered 
by being tempted to drink. I went to a tavern, 
and had almost asked for rum. I was so fee- 
ble that I could scarcely walk there ; and a 
thought was suggested to me to ask for milk, 
which I did, and drank about a pint, and was 
going away, when the landlord called me by 
name and said, '' Take a little bitters ; you look 
like death: are you sick?" "Yes, I am sick," 
said I. " Well," said he, " take a Httle bitters ; 
it will make you feel better." But I refused ; 
and how I hardly know ; for the temptations 
were such, and my feelings such, that I could 
hardly resist, for I believed that it would make 
me feel better, and my agony of body and soul 
together was about to overpower me. I was 
about to tell the landlord my vows ; but then I 
was afraid that I should break them, and my 
hell would be the worse. So away I went. In 
the afternoon of this day I had such feelings as 
I cannot describe. God had begun to shine in 
my heart, and show my wretchedness more than 
I had at any time seen before. 

I saw the justice of God in my damnation. 
I stood on the very verge of hell. My poor 
distressed soul began to prepare to leave its clay 



90 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

tenement. Several times I fainted — but all alone 
I came to myself again — and what was it to see 
and feel ? how my poor fallen spirit souglit 
for refuge from the wrath of God ! David says 
he felt the pains of hell ; but if ever a poor 
fallen being was allowed to feel the pains of the 
damned, I was. Something seemed to whisper, 
" Pray ;" but that looked like mockery, and 
made me more miserable : for it appeared to me 
that God could not be just and pardon such a 
wretch as I was. Now, dear reader, you may 
think you have a frightful picture; but I tell 
you that there is as much difference between 
the picture drawn and the feelings I then had 
as there is between a shadow and the substance. 
But finally the Spirit of God pleaded with me to 
pray so often, and so powerfully, that I resolved 
to begin. I commenced, and my prayer was, 
" God, have mercy on me, the worst of sin- 
ners. Save my poor soul from the damnation 
of hell." I prayed aloud — and when I had got 
to the house where I stopped, I fell down on my 
knees in the middle of the floor, and prayed with 
all my strength. 

The people tried to stop me, and said I was 
crazy. I told them I was not, but I stood on 
the very borders of hell, and my poor soul be- 
fore the next morning would be shrieking in tor- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 91 

ment. I tried to get them to pray for me, but 
none of them had ever prayed in their lives. 
They became alarmed, and were about to send 
for a doctor. Some of the neighbors' children 
were sent; one ran one way, and another an- 
other ; but I, like the blind man by the wayside, 
cried the louder for mercy. I spent the night, 
the most of my time on my knees, praying for 
pardon; but just before day, by much persua- 
sion, I went to bed, fell asleep, and slept until 
after sunrise. 

They asked me how I felt. I told them I felt 
wretched beyond description. This day, while 
praying, for the first time I felt tenderness of 
heart, and wept aloud. They again came around 
me, saying, " You are crazy ;" but I knew better. 
I had a little more confidence to pray, and spent 
the most of the day in praying and reading the 
Bible. I slept more at night than I had for five 
nights before. I continued to pray for four days 
and nights, and sought God with all my heart. 
I came very near making way with myself. 

One day I met a professor of religion, and 
instead of comforting or encouraging me, he al- 
most drove me to despair. He told me he be- 
lieved God had given me up, and that my doom 
was fixed; but I do not blame him, as I had so 
often and so greatly sinned against God ; and I 



92 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

have no doubt that he was sincere in what he 
said. My own dear brother in the flesh gave 
me up for lost ; 3'es, my praying brothers and 
sisters have since told me that they felt as 
though they grieved the Spirit when they tried 
to pray for me. But, blessed be God, Jesus 
Christ had not given me up ; my d6ar mother 
had not given me up. She had made a vow to 
God never to give me up nor give over pleading 
with God till he had blessed me. Christ heard 
and answered those prayers, and sent the holy 
Comforter to my poor disconsolate soul. Just 
as the natural sun was setting the Sun of Right- 
eousness arose in my heart, on the ninth day 
after I forsook rum, and the fourth day after I 
dared to try and hope in the mercies of God. 
It is now better than eleven years since, and 
blessed be God I am still on the way to the 
kingdom of heaven. My business called me 
among the world, and I was every day in the 
week with those that^ tried for some time to en- 
trap me and get me to drink ; but God gave me 
grace, and I was not overcome. But those that 
tried to entrap me soon got sly and shunned me 
for fear of being reproved ; for as soon as they 
began to tempt me to drink, and tell me of our 
old friendship, and say, "A little cannot hurt 
you, and I shall think you are offended with 



OP MORAL RECOVERY. 93 

me if you do not drink with me ;" I would say, 
*' I know well what our old friendship was, and 
who our master was ; and he had like to have got 
me shut up in hell. But blessed be God, He 
hath helped me to break the snare and set my 
soul at hberty, and his service is so much the 
best that I will serve him ; for the service of 
God gives me peace of soul, and makes me 
happy in prospect of a better world." Then I 
would try to entreat them to flee from the wrath 
to come, and forsake their cups. Some of them 
turned to God, and are now in the happy road ; 
but others are on their way down to the gulf of 
misery, and some have died drunkards, and God 
hath judged them ; so I forbear saying more of 
them. But those who I was afraid would lead 
me astray fled from me, for they could not with- 
stand love, and I always addressed them in that 
manner. 

the boundless love of God to poor fallen 
man! Who can fathom it? who can measure 
it ? who can tell it ? But, bless the Lord ! 
all may feel and enjoy it — ^yes, bless the Lord ! 
the vilest of the vile may come ; for he has 
made provision for all, or he vrould have passed 
by me. If he could save such a hell-deserving 
sinner as I was, none need despair. Now, my 
dear readers, and you in particular that are on 



94 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

the road that I traveled, I entreat you to stop 
and think before you stir from the place where 
you are, and see whither the road you are travel- 
ing will lead you. You are either on the way to 
heaven or to hell. If you are not aware, you 
will take one step too far toward that place pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. One step 
more may prove your ruin. But you may say 
that you are such a poor, miserable drunkard 
you cannot come — you would be glad to reform, 
but you cannot — you have tried a hundred 
times, and as often have broken your vows, and 
are now further from God than before. But 
stop, poor drunkard. You can reform — you 
can come to God. Though you have broken a 
thousand vows, yet God will not cast you off. I 
broke many — yes, oaths and vows made on my 
knees before God — ^but still God had mercy on 
me. But you say you have no power to resist. 
Try it. Put some arsenic in your rum, and then 
see if you will touch it. You can resist it. God 
will help you to do it. 

But perhaps your doctors have told you, as 
they did me, that if you stop all at once you 
will die. Do not fear. God will not let you 
die, if you flee to him with all your heart. Do 
you feel as though you were dying ? So did T. 
Yes, I thought several times that I should never 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 95 

breathe again. Now let me say to you, poor, 
wretched, miserable man, there is yet hope in 
your case. Bless the Lord, you are out of hell, 
and the arm^ of Mercy are outstretched to em- 
brace you. 

You may say that you have no praying mother 
or friend as I had. You may not have a pray- 
ing mother. Your mother's gray hairs may 
have been brought down to the grave with sor- 
row for you, or you may never have had a pray- 
ing relative ; yet be assured, my dear friend, 
you have the prayers of every sincere child of 
God. My soul is often in an earnest struggle 
with God in behalf of poor drunkards. My 
heart almost bleeds when I see one. could I 
help them, how soon I would do it ! But you 
say if you should now reform, you have lost 
your character — no one would have any confi- 
dence in you — the people of God would shun 
such a poor wretch as you are — they would not 
believe you if you should tell them you want 
religion. Do not fear. Go to some pious man 
and let him know that you want to reform, and 
see if he will not pray for you and comfort 
you ; and if he should not, what is that to you ? 
Your poor soul is at stake, and if you do not 
mind you will lose it. Jesus Christ Avill not re- 
ject your plea, although man might do it. I 



96 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

was told by man that my damnation was sealed. 
But what said Jesus to me ? " Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest ;" and, " Whosoever coraeth unto 
me I will in no wise cast out." No, for no rea- 
son. You may see many good reasons why 
God should cast you off; but be assured that 
for none you can bring will he cast you off. He 
will receive you, and then by your reformed life 
you will soon have friends enough that will be 
friends indeed. 

When I obtained grace I owed over one thou- 
sand dollars, and had not the value of two shil- 
lings to help myself with. I believe I had one 
shilling in my pocket, and I could not have got 
credit for a glass of rum before this ; but I 
commenced work, and instead of spending my 
money for rum, and my time in drinking it, I 
paid my debts, and in about four years I was 
able to pay every man. Yes, I established my 
credit by my life, and now my property is 
worth over four thousand dollars clear of all the 
debts I owe. God hath given me not only 
peace and joy in my heart, and a happy little 
family that causes my heart to rejoice, v/hen I 
see them all bow, morning and evening, with me 
at the throne of grace, but he hath given me of 
this world's goods ; so that I can bless the Lord 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 97 

I am enabled to make the heart of the poor 
widow and orphan rejoice. I hold nothing as 
my own. I am only a steward ; and when God 
says, Give! I do it with cheerfulness, and he 
gives to me peace and joy in so doing. 

Reader, if you are not a drunkard, and never 
was, you have reason to be thankful. You 
ought to pity the poor drunkard. Many men 
may, by kind treatment, be reformed. Now fix 
your eye on one, and use all the influence you 
have for one year, and see if you cannot make 
a family happy, and be instrumental in the hand 
of God of saving a soul from hell. Do not be 
discouraged by some failures, but be bent on it, 
and make it the burden of your prayers, and 
see what God will help you to perform. Surely 
you can do much. Do not get weary, but use 
all the means you have in your power, and God 
will crown your efforts with success. You may 
think that what you say to the drunkard is of 
no use — that he is past feeling; but you are 
mistaken. If you do all you can, though he 
may make light of it, what you say to him in 
love he will feel when alone, and will often 
weep. The most miserable being on earth is 
the drunkard. He may feel rich while under 
the operation of liquor ; but when that is gone 
he will feel, and no one knows how he will 
7 



98 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

feel but himself. His character is gone — he ir 
despised and shunned — he is discouraged, and 
the least disappointment or trouble will send 
him to the glass for help; and thus the poor 
man is hurried on by his own appetite and the 
devil. But had he friends he might be saved ; 
that is, the most of them. I have often felt as 
though I would be willing to bind myself to 
any man that would have undertaken my ref- 
ormation. Yes, I have gone further than that 
— I have been on the point of going to the state- 
prison, and offering to stay there two or three 
years to wean myself from my cups. I started 
several times, and once I got in front of the 
prison, and was about addressing myself to the 
keeper, when it was suggested to me, "They 
will think you are a lunatic, and will not pay any 
attention to you. I might as well try to break 
off myself. I can, and I will." I would say, 
" Begin to taper off;" but soon something would 
come in my way to cross me, and then I would 
double my dose. that the poor, unhappy, in- 
temperate men only knew how willing Jesus 
Christ is to help them, how soon they would 
make an effort to get to him ! 

Now, dear man, let me say a few words to 
you, to encourage you to set out with all your 
powers for a reformation. You need not think 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 99 

your case too hard for Jesus Christ, or your 
sins too many or great for him to undertake your 
cause. He will not reject your suit. He will 
hear your prayer. It is the devil that tells you 
you are too bad to come to Jesus. Though your 
sins are as scarlet or crimson, you may come. 
If you are out of hell, blessed be God ! the 
arras of mercy are now open to embrace you. 
You may yet be happy, and make your poor 
wife and children's hearts rejoice — yes, your 
father and mother, your brothers and sisters — 
yes, and all who know you will feel pleased, 
even the drunkard himself will be glad ; and 
the Church is ready to receive you with open 
arms upon j^our repentance. You may yet be 
a useful citizen, and an honor to the name you 
bear. 

I said God had blessed me with both tempo- 
ral and spiritual blessings. Yes, when I em- 
braced the religion of Jesus Christ again I was 
poor, as I said before — much in debt — my credit 
was all gone. But now my credit is good, and I 
will tell you how I established it. In the first 
place, I resolved not to ask any man to trust 
me at all if I could possibly avoid it ; and in the 
second place, to save all I could spare from my 
earnings, and pa}^ every man that I owed as fast 
as I could. I owed several hundred dollars in 



100 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

small debts, and these I paid as fast as they 
called on me ; for it so happened that I liad the 
money as fast as they called, and my larger 
debts I discharged b}^ small payments, until they 
were all paid. In the third place, I was resolved 
to be perfectly honest in every sense of the 
word ; on one occasion a merchant's clerk, 
in exchanging money for goods that I had 
bought, paid me one dollar too much, I soon 
found it out, and at once made up my mind to 
return it. Previous to this I had asked a little 
credit of the merchant, which would have been 
a great advantage to me, as I could have finished 
my work to much better advantage, I had 
traded with liim considerably, and paid the 
money. But he very politely refused me. I 
asked him to let me do work for him for goods, 
as he sold the articles I manufactured ; but this 
he said he could not do, as he had to take work 
from several persons. As I was going into the 
store to return the money, the enemy told me 
that they would think I had done it to establish 
my credit ; but I silenced the temptation by 
coming to the determination not to accept of 
credit if offered, I paid the money, and that 
day they gave me work to the amount of over 
one hundred dollars, and it helped me much. 
On another occasion the merchant made a mis- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 101 

take in weighing, which made about seventy-five 
cents in my favor. This I paid ; and after that 
he urged me to buy a larger quantity, and said 
he would take my note at five or six months, 
and give me a chance to pay it. I accepted the 
offer with reluctance, and it was fifty dollars' 
profit to me. This is the way I started, and I 
paid at the very time it was due. When I owed 
and had promised payment, the money v/as 
ready at the time, and I did not wait to be 
called upon for it, but carried it myself. This is 
the way I have endeavored to do, and ever mean 
to do. 

And another thing: I never undertake any- 
thing without asking the blessing of God; and 
if I feel that I have not the approbation of God, 
I let it alone. He that told us to ask for our 
bread day by day, has told us to make all our 
wants known by supplication and prayer. May 
the Spirit of God attend this history, and let it 
have the desired effect on every reader ! 

Now, reader, if you have relations that are 
the worst of drunkards, do not give them up, 
though you have tried a hundred times to stop 
their course, and have as often been disappointed. 
Try a throne of grace. God can hear prayer — 
he does hear prayer, and answers prayer. 
what cannot be done by mighty prayer ! Your 



102 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

friends will be awakened — they will be misera- 
ble — God will trouble their minds, if you pray 
in faith. may God help every one to do all 
he can to stop the progress of intemperance ! 
and when the whole Church is alive to this 
subject, rumsellers will be scarce and despised. 
I do not believe a man that loves God can 
give his custom to a grocer that sells rum. 
No; if he will only reflect on the evil that 
alcohol has done, he will not pass a temperance 
grocery to buy of a vender of poison that per- 
haps is about to be administered to some of his 
near relations. 

A " Reformed Tavern Keeper," on reading 
the preceding sketch, called publicly for the 
publication of it in a more permanent form. The 
author, in order to make it more complete for 
this purpose, published the following fuller de- 
tails : — 

In looking over one of the numbers of the 
Christian Advocate and Journal, I saw a request 
from one of your subscribers, calling himself the 
" Reformed Tavern Keeper," for you to publish 
in a tract the narrative of a man that had been 
brought from the lowest state of intemperance, 
and is now trying to work out his salvation with 
fear and trembling. I am that man ; and as I 



OF MOKAL RECOVERY. 103 

have thought it likely the first piece would be 
published, I have supposed it would be ex- 
pedient for me to write more, and I submit 
the following for your consideration. I have 
tried to excuse myself from it for want of 
learning. I need not tell you that I am a 
very poor penman and a worse grammarian, 
for that you already see ; but with a warm 
heart, and a soul invigorated by the love of 
God to do good, and try and counteract the 
evil of my former days, I have taken my pen 
again to write ; and may the Spirit of 
the Head of the Church direct my pen and 
warm my heart, and attend this little history 
wherever it may go, that it may prove a bless- 
ing to the world, and, like the stone from the 
sling of the shepherd-boy, smite down that 
Goliath that hath so long defied the armies of 
the cause of temperance, and cause his blood 
to run into the earth instead of its being drunk 
by the deluded sons and daughters of fallen 
man, to cause them to be a burden even to 
themselves, and a curse in the world. 

There is no being on earth more miserable 
than the drunkard. Men feel for the heathen 
world that has not the light of the gospel, 
and they ought to feel for it; but the poor 
drunkard is in a worse state, both for time 



104 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

and eternity, than even the Hottentot or the 
negro on the sands of Africa. The man that 
has fallen a victim to intemperance is more 
wretched th^n even a prisoner kept in chains 
in a heathen land, that has been taught to fear 
God; for in that state he will call on God, 
and God will hear and answer his prayer. 
And if he is not relieved of his chains until 
death, that will break the bands asunder, and 
his happy soul will fly to rest with God in 
heaven. While the drunkard feels his chains 
galling him here, and his poor weak frame trem- 
bling, he is deaf to all the calls of mercy, and 
is exposed every moment to death, both tem- 
poral and eternal. When the operation of 
liquor is gone off, he in a small degree sees 
himself, and would be glad to reform, but can- 
not, he thinks. Yes, thousands are exposed in 
this way, and if they had worlds at their com- 
mand they would be willing to give them to 
be put on the same ground that they once 
stood on; but the devil and their own thirst 
for happiness has led them on, step by step, 
until they find that they are caught within the 
walls of that strong prison, Despair, while very 
few ever escape when once they fairly get 
caught in it. They cry and weep, they mourn 
and try to pray, at times. They resolve and 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 105 

re-resolve that they will break off. How often 
does the poor deluded man say, " I Avill drink no 
more ;" and he really thinks that he shall keep 
his promise. He means to keep it, and strug- 
gles for a while against his appetite. Fearful 
forebodings are running through his mind. His 
brain is affected ; his mind is distempered ; he 
calls all his reasonmg powers to work to assist 
his escape, but his feelings increase. "What 
shall I do?" he says. The doctor, the devil, 
and his appetite say, " You must take a little, 
and taper off" by degrees." He listens, and is 
glad of an excuse to drink ; and if the doctor 
says he must, he then feels clear to do it, and 
takes a little, but is still bent on overcoming. 
He feels better, and takes a little more. His 
resolutions are all prostrated. He is shorn of 
his strength again, and soon is worse than before 
he undertook to reform. 

How often does every dnmkard make resolu- 
tions to do better ? It is a very easy thing for 
a man to resolve to do better ; but the thing is 
to perform. We see many drunkards in our 
neighborhood and countiy, and some of them 
may be our nearest relations — a father, a son, 
a husband, or a brother. how it makes us 
feel, often, when we contemplate their end ! 
It makes us shudder to think of it. We have 



106 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

talked to them time and again, and they have 
promised to reform and do better ; and at times 
we have felt encouraged, and thought that they 
would ; but, of a sudden, our hopes have been 
blasted — we have seen them worse and worse, 
and bidding fairer and fairer to plunge in mis- 
ery. Shall we give them up, and let them go 
on in this way ? No ! Now I will tell you, my 
dear reader, something more about my wretched 
state while I pursued the road to ruin; and if 
you then say you will give up your friends that 
are drunkards, although you may have tried again 
and again, I fear that your hearts are not right 
in the sight of God. And you, poor drunkard, 
read with care, and may the Spirit of G-od help 
you, by the time you have read these lines, to 
say, in the strength of God, " I will go and do 
likewise." If you take this advice, you are as 
sure of success as of your existence. There was, 
in my opinion, but one step between me and 
death. Yes, death eternal as well as temporal. 
For about five years the operation of liquor was 
not off of me but a very short time, if at all. In 
my first sketch you have read the manner in 
which I began. It was one steady, onward 
course of intemperance. For the first three or 
four years my nerves kept pretty strong ; but at 
the latter part of the thiid year, I began to 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 107 

tremble and shake as soon as the operation of 
liquor was off in the least. I drank excessively 
of brandy every day ; but it was not strong 
enough to keep me steady ; and the last thing 
before going to bed, I had to take a glass of 
liquor ; and as soon as the light appeared in the 
morning, the first rum-hole I could find open I 
was in. But how I felt after I had one nap ! 
The rest of the night I only dozed, and often 
felt afraid that the devil would come and carry 
me off before raornincy : althoufrh I was striving 
to believe that there was no devil, yet I feared 
one. At the commencement of the fifth year, 
I had to begin to take some liquor to bed with 
me, often putting in peppermint or something 
else, saying to the landlord that I had the colic, 
or the like, to blind his eyes, for I did not then 
want people to think I was a drunkard. I have 
started hundreds of times to reform myself, and 
often made solemn vows to God that I would 
stop. Yes, even oaths have I violated. At 
one time I took a solemn oath not to drink any- 
thing stronger than cider for one year. I kept 
the oath for about six months ; but during that 
time I poured down the cider instead of drink- 
ing it. Cider, however, began to be scarce, and 
I found I should soon have to go without, yet 
I thought it would not do at all to break my 



108 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

oath; but the devil helped me to tell a lie to 
hide my shame. I had said I would not drink 
any hquor except it was ordered by a doctor. 
I pretended to be sick. I had a pain in my 
breast, and I told the doctor, and he said a little 
good brandy, with some roots he would give 
me, would do me good, and my appetite would 
return and I should be better. Then I took it, 
and thought I had cheated the devil ; but the 
devil had cheated me. At another time I prom- 
ised God, if he would only still that trembhng 
of my hands and limbs, so that I could get along 
with my work, that I would never drink any 
more. That night I was really afraid I should 
never see daylight again ; but in the morning I 
arose, and, to my astonishment, my hands were 
steady, the trembling had left me, and I ate my 
breakfast with a better appetite than I had for 
months before. I went in this way for two or 
three days, and began to feel like another man ; 
but I ate some fruit, or something that made 
it necessary for me to take medicine. The doc- 
tor proposed castor-oil, and fixed some in a glass. 
He put in some gin, and then the oil. I took it 
in my hand and smelt of it. I knew what it 
was, and told the doctor I would rather take it 
in water, or alone ; but he said that the gin was 
best for me. I drank it, but not without such 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 109 

feelings of soul that I trembled from head to 
foot. I left the office of the doctor, and how 
I felt temptations come on me anew ! I lost 
all power to resist, and in less than one hour I 
had dmnk several small glasses of liquor. O 
what a mercy it is that I am out of hell ! From 
that time I had to take hquor to bed with me 
every night. My friends pleaded with me to 
reform. I would promise to do it, but I had 
not the power. I began to fail. Large blotches,^ 
or sores, came out on my face, so much so that 
many were afraid that I had the small-pox. In 
til is state I passed day after day ; but none but 
the poor drunkard can tell how I felt. At 
times I felt as though a thousand needles were 
stuck in me at once ; and when I began to get 
asleep, all at once my flesh felt as though pins 
or needles were stuck all over me, and I would 
increase my quantity of hquor until I fell asleep. 
Then people said my eyes were open the most 
of the time, and that I was constantly talking or 
springing about. It sometimes happened that I 
had some one to sleep in the same room with me, 
and they have said that thej^ were afraid to go 
to sleep, for fear I should die ; for they said my 
breath seemed to be gone for a minute or more 
at once, and that, when I did fetch a breath, I 
would scream out and start as though I would 



110 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

have jumped out of bed. Frightful dreams tor- 
mented me while asleep ; and when awake, I 
felt like a devil tormented within, as I said in my 
former sketch. I began to feel that my end 
was nigh. I asked the opinion of several doc- 
tors about my leaving off drink all at once, for 
I was well convinced that I could not leave off 
any other way. But they all said it would be 
dangerous for me to stop all at once. I should 
bring on the brain-fever, and fall a victim to 
death at once. They further said it was death 
for me to continue in the way I was going ; and 
some of them said they should not think it 
strange if I did not live one week. They all 
said I could not live two months longer if I 
pursued the couise I was then going. In this 
state of mind the information was near proving 
fatal to me, for I was resolved that it never 
should be said to my relations, "Your brother 
or son died a drunkard." My relatives were 
respectable, and I felt for them. I left New- 
York on board of a steamboat, with the inten- 
tion of going to the south as far as my money 
would carry me, of destroying all my papers 
that would give any clew to my name or where 
I was from, and of going by some fictitious 
name, and then of taking laudanum or brandy 
sufficient to put me into that sleep from which 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. Ill 

I should never wake again ; but before we had 
got to the first stopping-place I became crazj. 
Men on board have since told me that I told 
them what I have just stated, and that I said, 
as no one knew me on board, it was no use for 
me to 2:0 that distance to commit suicide ; that 
I was on the point of jumping overboard just 
forward of the wheel, and that the man that 
caught hold of me had to get help to pull me 
back into the boat. 0, what a mercy of God ! 
How near I was then to the lake of fire ! I 
now came to the resolution to die sober, if I 
could live to get sober. I e.xpected to die. As 
I have already given many particulars of my 
history down to the day when God spoke 
peace to my soul, I shall only tell of some of 
my feelings that I omitted before, in hopes that 
if any poor creature undertakes to reform, he 
will not get discouraged, and fly to his cup 
for relief. The afternoon that I began to cry 
aloud to God for mercy, it appeared to me 
in my delirium that I saw and conversed with 
what I then thought to be men for several 
hours. I had retired to the woods, and these 
men, as I took them to be, used the most 
awful blasphemy that I ever heard. They 
kept me there for several hours, hiding from 
one place to another, until I started on a run 



112 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

as fast as my poor feeble frame could carry 
me away, and I looked not behind me until 
I had got out of the woods into the high- 
way. I expected every moment to be cut 
down. After I had got out I looked back, 
and could see them dodging about in the 
woods, and hear their oaths that I should not 
see another day. I went to my boarding- 
place, and they came off into the fields before 
the house ; but no one could see them but me. 
I went into a bedroom and thought I would 
lie. down ; but as soon as I sat on the side of 
the bed two of them came through the glass 
window. They then dropped the form of men 
for that of devils. I screamed aloud, and left 
the room. One of them came two or three 
times and blew smoke into my face, and said, 
" Smell of hell !" It seemed that it would stop 
my breath the last time it was done. I verily 
thought I never should breathe again. Whether 
what I saw and heard was a reality, or imagina- 
tion, it mattered not to me. I thought it was 
all just as it appeared to be. I took the 
Bible from the shelf, and held it as with a 
death-gripe ; but those monsters told me it 
was of no use for me, for my damnation was 
sealed, and that that very night I should be 
among the damned in hell. But that made 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 113 

me cry the harder for help. At that time I 
was on the very verge of eternity ; I expected 
to die : my poor soul began to flutter like a 
bird in its cage, and the clay tenement began 
to totter, and was on the point of falling. I 
took a view of eternity, of eternal pains. The 
pains of hell had got hold of me. Minutes were 
hours to me. 

jSTow, reader, just try to imagine yourself on 
the point of leaving the world, and devils stand- 
ing around you ready to seize jour trembling 
spirit, to drag it down to misery and pain with- 
out tb.e least shadow of escape, if you can ; 
and then you Avill have a little idea of my feel- 
ings. At one time my breath stopped, and I 
fell to the ground for dead, and how long I 
lay in that state I cannot tell ; but when I 
came to myself I was surprised that I was 
not dead. I had given up all hopes ; but as 
hfe was left, like a man drowning I held up 
my hands for help, and again began to cry, 
*' God be merciful to me a sinner !" Then I 
Avould open the Bible, and try to read ; but 
the devil seemed to stand at my side, and 
would read faster than I could, and then in- 
terpret it to suit himself. I got some of the 
family to read for me, but dared not let my 
hand be off the Bible. At that time I took a 
8 



114 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

solemn oath on the Bible that I never would 
drink any more liquor of any kind, nor wine, 
cider, or beer ; and if I did perish, it should 
be at the foot of the cross, crying for mercy. 
A voice spoke to me in language the most 
loving that I ever heard, " No one ever perished 
there." My soul was filled with love. I was 
as happy as I before was miserable ; but it was 
for a moment only, and I was again in misery. 
But I had a little hope of obtaining mercy. 
The devil seemed not to come within several feet 
of me any m.ore ; but how venomous he looked 
at me ! and after a few moments some ten or 
fifteen demons seemed to stand together, and 
talked so low that I could not understand them ; 
but they would turn and look at me, till at last 
they gave an awful howl — a noise unlike everj 
other noise that I ever heard — and fled. I could 
hear them for some minutes, till the noise at last 
ceased ; and, blessed be God ! they have not re- 
turned again.* That night I spent in praying 
until near daylight, and by much persuasion I 
lay down without the thought that I should get 
to sleep ; but I did fall into a sleep, and lay until 
the sun was up. When I arose, the neighbors 
had got together, several of them, to see what 
'^ These "horrors" are familiar to medical men 
who have attended such cases. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 115 

strange thing had happened; for the family 
thought I was a second Faustus, and that the 
devil would carry me off, soul and body. They 
were much alarmed — so much so that they dared 
not leave the house that night. They asked me 
how I felt. I told them like a devil in torment. 
Some of them said I ought to be ashamed of 
myself to act as I did the preceding night, fright- 
ening the family ; for they seemed to believe 
that what I did was all to gratify my malice. 
I tried in vain to make them think differently ; 
but some others believed me, and tried to en- 
courage me. 

I had learned that morning that a camp- 
meeting at Haverstraw was to be kept over 
Sunday. I proposed to go ; but they would 
not agree to it, for still they thought me to be 
deranged. They kept a watch over me every 
time I left the house, for fear that I should com- 
mit suicide, or start for the camp-meeting. I 
w^alked about seeking for rest or ease of mind, 
but found none. No, I could not even shed a 
tear. My heart was hard, and I felt as though 
I should burst asunder. who can paint with 
a pen the feelings of my heart ! I was expect- 
ing every hour would be my last. My poor 
soul was crying for help, and, like a bird try- 
ing to fly from its pursuer, was fluttering to 



116 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

depart from its clay tenement, the walls of 
which were tottering to their fall, and eternity- 
was just at hand. The thought of eternal pains, 
and the justice of that sentence, was so plain to 
me that I felt it was my due, and my just re- 
ward. The throne of God was clear — I alone 
was guilty before God, But although I saw it 
was just, how my poor fallen spirit sought for 
help ! This was on Friday. About noon I 
went into the garret, and got in behind the 
chimney on my knees before God, and there I 
tried to pray. The thoughts of former days 
came to my mind, I saw the days of my early 
youth, the care of a pious mother, the hour of 
my espousal to Christ, the happy hours I had 
enjoyed in my closet, the love of God to me, and 
m}^ ingratitude to him. My hard heart began 
to soften more and more until the hardness was 
all gone, and a flood of tears came from ray eyes, 
which were the first that I could shed. I cried 
aloud for mercy again. The family heard me, 
and came around me to try and stop me. They 
said I was surely crazy ; but like the blind man 
by the way I cried the harder, until I was ex- 
hausted ; yet no relief for me was to be found. 
I again tried to get some of them to go with me 
to the camp-meeting, but in vain ; and they 
would not let me be out of sight a moment 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. Il7 

after, that day. I slept a little on Friday night, 
if I might call it sleep ; but it was only for a 
few minutes at once. I came to the full deter- 
mination, that night, to go to the camp-meeting 
the next day, at all hazards ; but said nothing 
about it. On Saturday morning I said but very 
little, but walked out a number of times, some 
way from the house, and returned, until they 
got tired of watching me so closely ; and then I 
started through the woods, for I dared not keep 
tlie road for fear of being pursued and brought 
back. Every noise I heard made me start. I 
was afraid the devil would again come and take 
me off, soul and body. I ran until I was out of 
breath and got into a thicket of bushes, for a 
little while, and prayed again to God to help me 
to get to the meeting. what temptations I 
had while I was going ! The devil told me that 
I was so bad no one would pray for me after I 
had got there ; and that it was of no use for 
me to go. I had no money ; for they had taken 
my money all out of my pocket, to keep me 
from going, and I had to cross the North River 
to get to the meeting. They even said, " When 
you get to the river you cannot cross without 
money ; and if you attempt it, they will not 
land you, but take you back again." I was on 
the point of giving up a number of times ; but, 



118 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

bless the Lord, I did not. A thought came to 
my mind that a man owed me a few shillings, on 
the way, and I started for his house. He had no 
money, he said. I plead with him to borrow it 
for me. At last he gave me an order for seven 
shillings on a store ; and I took it and gave him 
a receipt in full, and went with a much lighter 
heart than before. I presented the order ; the 
man said I owed him three and sixpence, and he 
would deduct that and give me the balance. I 
consented, and he gave me three and sixpence, 
and offered to treat me ; but it was no tempta- 
tion to me. That money was more precious to 
me than any I ever had before ; for it appeared to 
me my salvation entirely depended on my getting 
to the assembly of the people of God, and I could 
not get there without money. It was now night, 
and I was several miles from the river, and there 
would be no chance for me to s'et there that 
night. The store-keeper observed that something 
was the matter with me, and invited me to stay 
all night with him free of expense. I con- 
sented, and he invited me to tea — I ate a httle. 

That night, while kneeling by my bed, praying 
to God to help me to the meeting, it appeared 
to me that I ought to pray to God for help 
then ; that I should look to Christ just as I was, 
and I should be saved. But 1 thought it was a 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 119 

temptation, and dared not do it. I have since 
seen tliat it was my privilege and duty ; but 
sucli a great sinner as I was I thought could not 
come unless he had a great many good men 
pleading with God for him at once; and I 
thouD-ht for their sakes God would hear me. I 

o 

have since seen that it is only for the sake of 
Jesus Christ that he can or will pardon the sin- 
ner ; and that for his sake he will pardon even 
the chief of sinners that will plead in the name 
of Christ, and depend solely on the merits of 
Christ for help. But I must be more brief. 

On Sunday morning I started for the encamp- 
ment again. I got there a little past twelve 
o'clock in the day. The first man that I met on 
the ground was a local preacher. He asked me 
what I had come for. I told him that I had 
come to see if God would have mercy on me ; 
but that I feared my day of grace was gone, 
and that I should be damned. He said he 
should not think it strange if that was the case, 
for I was a great sinner, besides a backslider ; 
and that I had trampled under my feet the Son 
of God, as it were, and he thought it likely God 
had given me up to believe a lie, to be damned ; 
but that I had best try to pray, for the mercy 
of God was veiy great. The man was honest 
to me ; he said just as he thought. He knew 



120 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

me, and knew of my embracing infidel principles, 
and I verily believe that he thought my damna- 
tion was sealed. He did not know what had 
happened to me. 

What he said to me well nigh proved my ruin. 
The devil took the advantage of it, and I started 
into the woods with a full determination to com- 
mit suicide. " Now," said the devil, " I told you 
that they would not pray for you. The Method- 
ists have given you up a long time ago, and they 
are the last people that will give any one up." 
It looked all true, for no Methodist that knew my 
principles had for a year said anything to me of 
my danger, but all seemed to shun me. 

You of my readers that have visited the camp- 
ground at Haverstraw will recollect a mountain 

o 

south of the ground. I bent my steps toAvard 
that, to try and climb to the top of a ledge of 
rocks, from which I meant to throw myself 
down headlong, and dash myself to pieces ; but 
my strength failed me to climb the hill. I then 
tried to climb a tree, but was too weak. I then 
took my knife from my pocket, but it was dull. 
I feared that I could not pcrfoi'm the deed with 
it if I tried. my God ! wliat a critical moment 
tins was witli me! My guardian angel was on the 
veiy point of leaving me. I stood on the brink of 
eternity ; and if angels are permitted to feel for the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 121 

woes of those tliey have guarded, the angel of 
mercy that had watched me from my infancy up 
to that period, and had rejoiced at my espousals 
to Christ years before that period, and had for 
a few days been watching and guarding me with 
the expectation of my return to Christ, to see 
me on the very eve of taking my own life, must 
have fetched a sigh, — yes, and I have thought 
was taking his flight when Christ again sent his 
blessed Spirit to plead with me. The devil tri- 
umphed around me, no doubt; but 0, blessed 
be God — yes, glory, and honor, and power be 
ascribed to him forever and ever — for his inter- 
position at that time. I held the fatal weapon 
in my hand, felt its edge, and was on the very 
eve of stabbing the large artery of the neck. I 
had laid off my cravat and put back my collar ; 
and nothing but the goodness of God saved me. 
Vf ell may I say, " My enemies were too strong 
for me ; but the Lord helped me." The Spirit 
of God led me back to the encampment again. 

I came to a praying circle, and heard the 
mourners crying for mercy. I stood and looked 
on, but felt worse and more hardened, I never 
liad such feelings before nor since. I believe 
tluit it was the spirit of the devil ; for I felt as 
though I would have been glad to destroy 
every one around me. I could hardly keep 



122 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

from swearing right out at them. But while 
I stood there, a httle boy, about ten or twelve 
years old, was awakened by ray side, and fell 
down on his little knees, and with streaming 
eyes looking toward heaven, with one hand on 
my knee, cried out in the bitterness of his soul, 
" O God, have mercy on me a sinner, a great 
sinner." The sight was too much for me. I 
began to tremble. A young man that loved 
God saw me, and came to me, and asked me if 
I did not want religion. I told him I did, but 
that my day of grace was gone by. He said it 
was not, and that he was sure God would again 
accept me, if I would but return to him. I could 
stand no longer on my feet, and fell prostrate 
before God, crying for help. I prayed the 
most of the night and day following, and on the 
evening of Monday, in the very place where I 
first kneeled, my burden was rolled off, and my 
poor troubled heart was again cheered by the 
lamp of life. 

ISTow let me say to every one that is yet this 
side of eternity. Though your sins are as crim- 
son or scarlet, the blood of Christ can remove 
all the guilt and set you free; and to you, 
poor, despised man, who hath ruined thyself, 
and hast for a long time given up all hopes 
of better days, There is yet hope in your case. 



OP MORAL RECOVERY. 123 

You are out of hell — that hell which will be 
eternal, if you go, perhaps, another step that 
way. stop and consider for a few moments. 
Poor man, you are in misery. All your thirst 
is for rum. As soon as you awake, your first 
care is to get your bitters. Your stomach almost 
heaves as you take it. But you are in misery ; 
you feel that you are despised, and perhaps none 
you see speak kindly to you, but all shun and 
despise you. While you haA'-e money, the rum- 
dealer will be friendly to you, or at least make 
you think so ; but when you have no money, 
you see his friendship is gone. Now, drunkard, 
my heart bleeds for you. Yet the very worst 
of you may come to Christ, and without money ; 
yes, bless the Lord ! his arms are extended to 
help you. come ! 

I am fully satisfied that the greatest drunkard 
now in the city of New -York might reform, if 
he would only use the means God has blessed 
him with. Now, dear man, stop and let us rea- 
son for a few moments on the subject. I say, 
if you are alive, there is a chance for you to 
reform and save your soul. But you say that 
you have often tried, and as often been defeated ; 
and that you have followed a course of intem- 
perance so long that now you cannot stop with- 
out causing immediate death. Perhaps your 



124 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

doctor tells you the same. You tremble at the 
thought of death ; you look around on your 
friends, if you have any — perhaps a broken- 
hearted wife, and poor, almost naked children. 
You are filled with horror at the thoughts of 
your own and your family's situation ; you feel 
a hell within, and say to j'^ourself, " I am undone, 
and it is too late for me to reform ;" and as soon 
as the light opens, away you go for your bitters. 
Instead of providing for your hungry children, 
the money is spent for rum, or you contract a 
debt with the grocer, to be paid out of your 
week's work, that amounts to as much as the 
bread for your family. When you consider this, 
you in your heart pity your wife and children ; 
but how often does that woman whom you 
pledged your vows to God to protect, meet 
your cruel treatment ! Yes, although she is 
your best friend, yet, while under the influence 
of liquor, you take her to be your worst enemy. 
But I do not want to harrow up your mind 
too much in this way. I said there was a cure 
for you ; and that wife and those children of 
yours can yet be made happy. Yes, your fire- 
side can yet be made to smile, and you take 
comfort, and be a comfort to your family, and 
an honor to your neighborhood. 

Now for the cure. In the first place, you must 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 125 

come to this resolution : / will never drink miy 
more liquor. And that is not enough : you must 
not drink wine, cider, or beer, nor take any drug 
that will in any way cause excitement or intoxica- 
tion. But you say, " I have often made such reso- 
lutions." Stop — how did you resolve ? Your 
resolutions were good as far as you carried them 
out. You kept from drink for a while ; but you 
had that hankering thirst left for drink, and you 
reasoned with the enemy and your own feelings, 
instead of resisting the temptation, *'A httle 
will do me no harm, but good," your feelings 
say; and the devil will help it on. Now, as 
often as you thus reason, you are growing 
w-eaker and weaker until you fall. But resist 
the devil and he Avill flee from you. Use vio- 
lence with your feelings. Say, and continue to 
say, " I will drink no more, let my feelings be what 
they will." You had better suffer a little while 
here than suffer eternal pain. Do not reason 
any more with the devil, nor the doctor, nor 
your own feelings. I am certain 5^ou can and 
will overcome. Hold on. But you begin to 
feel like death : yes, you think you are dying 
now ; vour breath is short and trembling ; vou 
feel that you are sinking. But hold on — do not 
be alarmed at all at that; call on God, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for help ; and although 



126 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

you may feel as tliougli the heavens were brass 
to your cry, yet hope in the mercy of God, and 
say — and not only say, but feel — that you will 
die before you will again take one drop. Keep 
repeating your vow, and call on God for help, 
and say, " If I do die and perish, it shall be at 
the foot of the cross." Recollect the voice that 
spake to me, that no one ever perished there. 
But you feel worse and worse ; strange voices 
are breaking in on your ear; fearful figures 
are presented to your vision; you fancy you 
ah-eady hear the howls of the damned ; but do 
not despair. Your friends may call for a doc- 
tor, and he will be sure to order you something 
that will stimulate. Touch it not at your peril. 
You have come to the worst of it if you are 
fixed in your mind to drink no more. I told 
you that at one time I thought I was dead. 
Yes, I fell to the earth, and how long I lay in 
that state I know not ; but, blessed be God ! I 
am alive yet. Do you say, " How long shall 
I feel thus ?" Perhaps several days ; but what 
are days to years ? and what are years to hund- 
reds of years ? and what are hundreds of years 
to thousands and milhons of years? and what 
are thousands and millions of years to eternity ? 
eternity ! who can calculate or reckon it ? 
When compared to time at the greatest extent 



or MORAL RECOVERY. 127 

we can calculate, it dwindles into a mere cipher, 
and leaves the astonished mind lost in the cal- 
culation. Now a few days of pain are wonder- 
fully grievous. Days and nights appear like 
months or years. Now you hope for better days ; 
but if you enter the eternal world in your sins, 
your hopes will be gone ; if you yield, you are 
gone ; but if you hold on for a little time, God 
will give you strength, and those impossibihties 
will vanish like a shadow. You have not always 
to undergo such feelings. No, you are near the 
kingdom ; so do not, for your soul's sake, let 
go your hold, nor reason for one moment whether 
you may drink or not. I fancy I see you, poor 
man, now about to halt ; but stop, call on God 
for help, and he will deliver you. I see you 
have at last overcome. You begin to feel bet- 
ter ; you have found relief ; you feel like another 
man ; you rejoice that you have overcome ; you 
look back with a shudder to see where you were, 
but with gratitude of heart to God for your deliv- 
erance. Yet do not think the devil is dead ; if 
you do, you will be much mistaken. He is going 
about seeking whom he may devour. He will at- 
tack you again, and in a way that will assuredly 
deceive you, if you are not very careful : you 
may be unwell, or exposed to the cold, and in 
danger of getting sick. In that way the devil 



128 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

maj prompt some of your real friends to advise 
you to take a little, for tbey do not know the 
consequence. But do not forget the charge : 
you must not reason with friends or foes on that 
subject. Be firm in your integrity, and be not 
shaken in it : if you do, you are gone again. 
Now with me it would be no temptation to 
drink, if the most skillful doctor in the State of 
New-York should tell me that I would die in 
an hour if I did not ; for then I would die, if 
notliing else would save me, for I had rather 
fall a martyr to my resolution than risk my 
soul. I fancy I see you now established in 
faith — you, who but a little time ago was a mon- 
ster, are now clothed, and in your right mind, and 
walking in wisdom's ways. may the Angel 
of his presence go with you ! and though you 
never in this life know the feeble instrument that 
God hath been pleased to bless to you, yet in 
eternity we shall meet; and my prayer is that 
this sketch may prove a blessing, and not a 
curse ; for if you do not get to heaven, your 
damnation will be more intolerable for all the 
invitations you have had. may the Spirit of 
the Lord accompany this, and save the poor 
drunkard from that vortex of misery to which 
he is fast tending ! 

A few words to professors of religion and the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 129 

temperate, and I close. Much can be done if 
such will, with one united effort, come up to the 
help of the Lord against this worst of all evils in 
existence ; for it leads to every vice almost that 
can be named. You may inquire. What can I do 
that I have not done ? I ansv/er by saying, Set 
your mind on some person, and labor for the sal- 
vation of that soul as you would for gold and sil- 
ver, or honor and applause, and there will be but 
little doubt that you will accomplish your end, and 
save a soul from death. Pray to God to awaken 
and convince the poor drunkard ; and God will 
do it if you pray in faith, and do not doubt. 
God will answer your prayer. Do not get dis- 
couraged, but be resolved that by love and good- 
will to the poor deluded creature you will vs'-in 
him over ; and though you have tried hundreds 
of times, be resolved that you will follow him 
to the very gates of death and hell, and hedge 
up his way from ruin if you can. " Be dili- 
gent in business," says an apostle ; and this ought 
to be every good man's business, to save poor 
souls from the damnation of hell, and a hell of 
misery here ; for the poor drunkai-d has a hell 
to go to hell in. 

But again : you may encourage the cause of 
temperance by buying of those that do not sell 
liquor. Our servants and our children are in 
9 



130 REHIAUKABLE EXAMPLES 

danger of being corrupted by sending them to 
sucli places ; and can you, reader, feel justified 
in buying of a man that is selling poison to your 
friends ? Look at the misery they have brought 
on your own relations or neighbors ! look to 
it, and may God help you to look aright, is the 
prayer of one that has felt the evils of intem- 
perance, and been saved from the very jaws of 
death ! consider the subject well ! It is a 
very serious one, and eternity is just at hand. 
You are, with me, near, very near. One or two 
days, weeks, months, or years will bring us to 
our account. The eye of God, as a flame of fire, 
sees and surveys all our actions. A little sin, as 
it looks to us, like the worm unseen by Jonah, 
that destroyed his gourd, will, if not repented 
of and forsaken, shut us out of heaven. that 
God would bless this sketch, although it is fee- 
ble, to the awakening up of the attention of both 
believers and unbelievers to stop the progress 
of the worst of evils in existence ! 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 131 



- G ; OR, A STRIKING INSTANCE OF 

THE INFLUENCE OF DIVINE GRACE. 



Though the grand evidence of those truths upon 
which our hopes are built arises from the author- 
ity of God declaring them in the Scriptures, and 
revealing them by his Spirit to the awakened 
heart, (for, till the heart is awakened, it is incapa- 
ble of receiving this evidence,) yet some of these 
truths are so mysterious and repugnant to the 
judgment of depraved nature, that through the 
remaining influence of unbelief and vain reason- 
ing, the temptations of Satan, and the subtile 
arguments with which they are attacked by some 
men reputed wise, the minds even of behevers 
are sometimes capable of being shaken. It is 
not, then, at all wonderful that persons who are 
already in love with the world, and desirous of 
indulging with greater liberty in its delusive 
gratifications, should be ready to receive prin- 
ciples which promise temporary relief from the 
remorse of conscience and the restraints of reli- 



132 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

gious obligation. But there is, perhaps, no bet- 
ter corroborating evidence of the truths of the 
gospel, than the testimony of such persons, who, 
through the mercy and goodness of a gracious 
Creator, are, on a death-bed, brought to see 
that they have been trampling upon the convic- 
tions of his grace, and, by the deceitful workings 
of the grand enemy of man's happiness, have 
been induced to believe a lie. At this aw^ful 
period, the soul being furnished with a view of 
the transcendent value of an interest in Christ 
over everything else, and enabled, through the 
renewed visitation of his love, to experience that 
sorrow which " worketh repentance not to be 
repented of," succeeded by an evidence that it is 
now received into his faA'or, it is, at such a sea- 
son as this, qualified to give unquestionable 
testimony to the truth of those doctrines most 
surely believed. An instance of this nature 
will be found in the following account : — • 

H G , of Philadelphia, was a young 

woman of extraordinary natural endowments 
and sweetness of disposition. Her benevolence 
w^as in proportion to her power of doing good ; 
and cheerfulness of mind, and easy affability, 
rendered her an object of esteem and affection 
to most who knew her. 

Happy would it have been for her, if in child- 



OF xMOKAL RECOVERY. 133 

hood tliese gifts had been properly cultivated 
and directed: happy, had they been subjected 
to the government of that divine principle of 
light and truth in the secret of the heart, which 
is freely given to every one to profit withal, and 
is the *' crown of glory and diadem of beauty !" 
But her aspiring mind could not stoop to the 
simplicity of the truth. " She stumbled at the 
Cross, and at that wisdom which is foolishness 
with men;" and "the still, small voice" of the 
"Teacher sent from God" was rarely listened 
to, and less frequently obeyed. 

She chose for her companions the gay and 
the volatile ; the books of her choice were nov- 
els, plays, romances, and Paine's Age of Rea- 
son ; but the Sacred Volume was seldom opened, 
save to cavil at some parts of its inspired con- 
tents. Thus did her reading embrace the doc- 
trines of infidelity in all its delusive forms, and 
her conduct was without hypocrisy, consonant 
Avith her faitli. She attended no place of divine 
worship, but spent naany of her precious hours 
at the theater and other similar places. Re- 
ligious characters were sedulously avoided, and 
their friendly admonitions disregarded. 

Some years were thus unconcernedly spent, 
when it pleased her Creator to blast her pros- 
pects and her health by consumption. Long 



134 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

did she linger, yet long were her old companions 
and books the exclusive objects of her attention. 
Her situation excited the sympathy of some 
who were not ignorant of the deplorable state 
of her poor soul ; but these real friends could 
find no access to her. The writer of this, how- 
ever, unburdened his mind to her in a letter, 
which, he has cause to believe, she condescended 
to read ; and one evening, a few weeks previous 
to her decease, called at the house in hopes of 
being invited into her chamber, but was disap- 
pointed. He inquired of her mother what was 
the state of the daughter's mind, now in the 
prospect of hastening dissolution ? Her answer 
was : " She is quite resigned and willing to die, 
and says she don't know that she ever did any 
harm." The friend replied, that if she rested 
her hopes of happiness on such innocence as this 
she would be miserably disappointed ; and that 
unless she felt an interest in Christ Jesus, the 
propitiation for the sins of the whole world, her 
misery was inevitable ; that he alone was the 
mediator between God and man, and that he 
doubted not, when she had a proper sight of 
herself, she would abhor that righteousness in 
which she now trusted, and in the bitterness of 
repentance would cry out in language like this : 
** Lord, be merciful to me a sinner !" 



OF MORAL RECOVERr. 135 

The secret operations of the unspeakable 
GRACE of the Redeemer, notwithstanding, 
brought about a new state of things in her soul ; 
she became seriously concerned to know her true 
situation ; requested one who sat by her to bring 
the BIBLE, and read to her ; talked of the awful- 
ness of death and eternity ; asked some questions 
concerning the Saviour, the object of his mission, 
birth, sufferings, death, resurrection, &c., and 
grew pensive and sorrowful. Divine light shone, 
at seasons, on passages of the Holy Scriptures, 
which now became her only book. She sent for 
a female friend, to whom she expressed her un- 
worthiness to claim the merits of Jesus, and 
said, " Dost thou think that such a one as I may 
hope ?" Her answer tended to encourage her to 
hope, provided she trusted in the righteousness 
of Ohrist alone ; and after a solemn pause, the 
friend knelt in supplication by her bedside, and 
was thus the instrument of much consolation to 
her. 

She now with her whole heart sought Him 
whom she had " rejected ;" she " mourned be- 
cause of Him whom she had pierced," and he 
mercifully manifested himself to her longing, 
almost desponding soul ; and therein shed abroad 
his light and love, whereby she was enabled to 
testify of his goodness, *' who willeth not the 



136 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from 
his wickedness and Hve !" 

A few days previous to her dissolution she 
sent for the writer of this memoir, who gladly 
obeyed the summons, and, for the first time, 
entered her chamber, where he found her sup- 
ported in bed by her father, and surrounded by 
her weeping relatives. On seeing him, she 

said, " Dear , how I did want to see thee ! 

I know thou wast always my friend." He re- 
plied that he had felt much interested for her, 
and was glad of the present interview. " O !" 
said she, "I have been eager after knowledge, 
but have neglected the onli/ true Jcnoivledr/e." 
" Yes," answered he, " thou hast neglected the 
only mean of obtaining substantial knowledge, 
namely, Christ Jesus, who is the ivay, the 
truth, and the life, and who came to seek and to 
save, not the righteous, but sinners.'' "Ah!" 
replied she, "I have been a sinner, a great sin- 
ner ; how have I misspent my precious time ; 
hoAv have I wasted my talents, which should 
have been improved to the glory of God ; and 
can it be that he forgives such a sinner as I ?" 
On her friend repeating the declaration, " Thy 
sins and thine iniquities will I remember no 
more," and observing that his promises are yea 
and amen, she exclaimed, with all the fervor of 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. ISY 

which her sinking frame was capable, *' He is 
not a man that he should he, or the son of man 
that he should repent ; is he, dear father ?" 
turning her face toward her weeping parent, 
while love beamed from her languid eyes. 
"What a dear Saviour! Is he not, dear 
friends ?" 

There was a sweet serenity which made her 
emaciated countenance appear lovely, and her 
endearing expressions to all around her evidenced 
the change within. A solemn stillness followed, 
when the writer was bowed in vocal supplica- 
tion and thanksgiving in her behalf. She shoitly 
after bade him a last farewell, in the mutual ex- 
pression of a hope to meet again where the tempt- 
er cannot enter ; where sorrow and sighing shall 
cease, and we shall no more say, " I am sick." 

A very intimate female friend of hers, in 
whose arms she expired, has favored the writer 
with the following interesting particulars : — 

The great change that was now evident was 
truly wonderful, and it might be said as of old, 
" Stand still and see the salvation of God ;" for 
not much of human agency appeared to have 
been the cause of such extinction of self-right- 
eousness, such unbounded love, such humble 
hope and confident faith in a dear Redeemer. 
Such a tender concern had she for her brother 



138 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

and sisters, that she repeated her dying injunc- 
tions in the following manner : " My dear sister 

E , attend to my dying words ; perhaps I 

never shall speak to thee again. Be kind and 
obedient to thy dear father and mother; do 
not, I charge thee, neglect going to meeting. 
that I had not neglected it so much ! Do n't 
do as I have done, my dear sister ; put off gay 
clothes, and dress plain. What are the gayeties 
of a fleeting world, a dying hour can best show. 
Do all thou Jcnowest to be right ; we oftener err 
from neglecting what we know than not knowing. 
Do not forget what I have said to thee at this 
awful moment ; let it have weight when I am 
gone." 

She was now much exhausted ; her cough was 
almost incessant ; yet, in the most severe suffer- 
ing, she said, 

" Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are." 

Then putting her arm, as well as her weakness 
w^ould permit, i*ound her friend's neck, she said, 
'' Do not, my dear friend, weep for me : I am 
going to my Father and thy Father's house. 
We have had many pleasant hours together in 
this world. I was long a wanderer, but I trust 
we shall meet in that pleasant land of rest, to 
part no more." She then asked to hear the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 139 

12 th chapter of Luke read, many passages of 
which afforded her subject for rejoicing, even in 
the extremity of pain ; especially that one which 
begins, " Behold the lilies how they grow," &c. 
She said, *' How consoling! how soothing ! how 
have I lived so blind to the beauties, the excel- 
lences of this Messed bookT' laying her hand on 
it as she spoke. 

After an interval of most distressing convul- 
sive coughing, in which she appeared departing, 
she revived, and desired to see her brother, to 
whom she thus addressed herself: — "My deg^r 
brother, I wish once more to speak to thee before 
I die. Wilt thou remember all I have said to 
thee when I am laid in the grave ? Thy time, I 
know, is much occupied ; but thou canst go to 
meeting on First-day afternoons. Use the plain 
language, and do not folloAV the evil course of 
those who live only for tliis world. Obey thy 
dear parents in all they desire of thee; they 
never will ask thee to do anything but what is 
for thy advantage. Be a kind brother to thy 
sisters : ! always live in unity with them, and, 
my dear hrother, never for c/ct that thou must one 
day die; prepare for it in season: do not let thy 
last hour come as a thief in the night. I have 
had a sore trial, but my hope is in Him in whom 
is no change. Dear brother, do not put it off as 



140 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

I have done ; let me be a warning to thee to 
begin early to seek the true Friend of sinners, 
the sure help in time of need. Dear, dear 

G- , remember what I say, when this hour 

shall be passed. I have loved you all dearly ; but 
O how manifold is my love increased for you 
now ! how much better I love all my kind friends 
and the whole world than when in health. The 
hour of death is an honest hour'' She was 
again much exhausted ; but her least sister 
coming into the room, she desired to have her 
brought near her, and clasping her arras around 
her, thanked her for giving up so much of her 
time to her during her illness, and said, " I know 
the Lord will bless thee for it ; thou art an inno- 
cent good girl now ; mayest thou always re- 
main so ! Dear L , farewell, farewell ! Re- 
member thy sister." 

She then desired to hear the 5th chapter of 
Matthew, and the words, *' Blessed are the mer- 
ciful, for they shall obtain mercy," were a balm 
to her mind. She said, " I have obtained 
mercy ; I cannot deceive mj^self now. Al- 
though I went from my blessed Saviour, his 
mercy never left me." Many other parts of the 
Holy Scriptures had her attention, even in the 
severest pain ; for although her body was wasted 
to the extreme, yet did her mind retain its 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 141 

strength and clearness, and even increased in 
vigor as it approached the moment of final 
freedom. 

She spoke much at intervals of comparative 
ease ; thanked her friends for all their kind at- 
tention to her ; and one remarking that it was 
an advantage to be with her, she said, "How 
thankful I am that I can be of use to any one ; 
it makes dying more easy to think I am per- 
mitted to do a Uttle good, and very Httle it is. 
Have I not come in at the eleventh hour, and 
can I presume to take the wages of the whole 
day ? But the blessed Lord of the harvest did 
freely give it to as great an idler as I. 
how wonderful are the mercies of the blessed, 
lowly Lamb of life ! All unworthy as I am, I 
yet will trust my all with him." 

Her pain now appeared very grievous, and 
her departure at hand. What she suffered, she 
said, was beyond expression, but she would en- 
deavor to be patient. A friend said she thought 
she could not suffer much more. " O !" said 
she, " that is pleasant tidings ; but I will try to 
bear all ; the Lord of life bore with me long, 
very long." She often said, 

" I '11 praise my Maker while I '\e breath. 
Ami when my voice is lost in death 

Praise shall employ ray nobler powers," &c. 



142 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

She asked her mother if she thought she had 
anything more to do. " Tell me now,'^ said she, 
"■ my strength will soon be quite gone." The 
friend in whose arms she had, from the begin- 
ning of her serious illness, expressed a wish to 
die, she now desired to support her. "I will 
soon cease," said she, " to trouble my dear 
friends, and this is the greatest favor and the 
last I shall ask of thee." It was now about 
seven o'clock in the evening, and her friend sat 
behind her, not thinking her change quite so 
near. She still continued in that sweet confiding 
spirit; still, amid her severe agonies, expressed 
that fullness of love which had been so great the 
last few days ; and her friend observed her lips 
move, and could hear, at intervals, words, as if 
in earnest prayer. She motioned to be raised 
up, which was done, and she faintly whispered, 

" Farewell, dear M , again farewell. I shall 

soon be at rest in Jesus." Her weeping friends 
now thought her gone ; but she that held her, 
subduing her own emotion as much as possible, 
motioned them to be silent. Again the dear 
saint revived, and her mother thought perhaps 
she had but swooned, and brought her some 
water. She said, " No, dear mother, no more 
drink in this world ;" but wetting her lips with 
her own hands, to the surprise of her relatives 



OF irORAL RECOVERY. 143 

and friends, repeated softly the following prayer, 
as nearly as could be recollected : — 

" Come, blessed Jesus, come, and receive a 
poor penitent wanderer home ! Blessed Jesus ! 
thou bleeding, dying Lamb, come ! — come 
with thy banner of salvation, and receive my 
departing soul ! receive it to thy holy habi- 
tation, where it shall find peace and rest ! And 
0, thou God of love, pardon all my transgres- 
sions against thee, and remember my sins no 
more ! Be with me in this my hour of sore trial ; 
shoi'ten my sufferings, Heavenly Father, if it be 
thy blessed will. Yet I will try to be patient 
until my appointed time. Come, support me 
with thine outstretched arm of love, and enable 
me to say, Not my will, but thine be done. Of 
thy manifold mercies forgive all my shortcomings, 
blot out my many sins, and let my name be 
found written in the Lamb's book of life. 
Come, blessed Jesus, give me the white robe ; 
give me the white robe, and be with me 
through the deep waters ! O -make them shal- 
low until I have clean passed over ! Dear Jesus, 
forget me not, nor leave me while in the dark 
valley of the shadow of death. Let the light 
of thy countenance shine upon me now and for- 
ever. come, dear Jesus, come ! Take my de- 
parting spirit to thy holy habitation, those man- 



144 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

sions, many mansions, in my Father's house. 
Come, dear Jesus, come — receive my — depart- 
ing spirit — receive — ray — receive — my — my — 
soul." 

After this exertion she sunk on the bosom 
that supported her dying frame. It was now 
ten o'clock, and, to the view of those present, 
she seemed to expire without a sigh ; but, as if 
she had just beheld the glorious haven of rest, 
and still in the spirit of pure love for her friends, 
wished to comfort those Avho wept the privation 
of her society, (for she was in her life very 
pleasant to many,) she once more opened her 
eyes, and with a smile of celestial radiance pass- 
ing over her fixed features, said, very faintly, 
" Happy, happy, O how happy !" and when she 
perceived she was understood, breathed no more. 
It is not in words to express the solemnity of 
such a scene. It was as if the portals of heaven 
had opened to our view, and we had seen our 
loved friend enter the abode of happiness and 
peace. Long, long may the impression abide 
with all who were present, and be remembered 
as a monument of the unbounded love of Him 
who is the salvation of the world. Her decease 
occurred the 13th day of the 12th mo., 1816. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 146 

PERFECT PEACE EXEMPLIFIED 

In If)* 2tl£lijg[fous ^x^nitntt of 
MR. JOHN WARREN HOWELL. 



The folloTN^ng case, taken from a work recently 
published, entitled •'•' Perfect Peace," &c., by the 
Rev. Da%-id Pitcairn, is an instance of conversion 
where character had been fully developed, at a 
comparatively advanced stage of Hfe. It is that 
of Mr. Howell, who was bom at Bath, in the 
year 1810. Possessed of uncommon vigor of 
intellect, and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, 
he made remarkable progress as a medical 
student. At the conclusion of his studies he 
commenced practice in his native town, and soon 
attracted the notice of many eminent men by 
his public lectures and contributions to various 
scientific journals. His mind had been cast in a 
noble mold. He was richly endowed with those 
high mental qualifications which constitute the 
true philosopher. There was not only much that 
was purely intellectual, there was also about 
him a moral loveliness that gTeatly elevated his 
10 



146 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

general character. His conduct was blameless 
in the sight of men. The refinement of his 
mind, and his extreme delicacy of feeling, made 
vice odious to him. He had at heart an abiding 
theoretic reverence for the Divme Being, and he 
conscientiously professed belief in a revelation. 
Some might have been prepared to pronounce 
him to be all that was needful to render him an 
object of God's complacency. The case is, 
therefore, a most valuable one, as it shows us 
how much had yet to be done, and how different 
mere respect for religion is from an experience 
of it. Mr. Howell practically forgot God ; the 
fear of God was not before his eyes ; the love 
of God was not in his heart ; the glory of God 
v/as not the object he had in view, nor the end 
at which he aimed ; the day of holy rest, which 
God had set apart for his own special service, 
was desecrated by secular occupations ; the pub- 
lic worship of God was seldom attended, and 
family worship was not thought of ; the welfare 
of his immortal soul was overlooked ; the great 
concerns of the eternal world were neglected. 
This is no exaggeration. It is the substance of 
his own tearful confession on a dying-bed. He 
made no profession of religion : he was too 
honest to profess what he did not feel. God, 
however, had his eye on him. Symptoms of 



OF MORAL RECOVERY, 141 

consumption began to manifest themselves, and 
he was induced to visit Torquay in the hope of 
recovery. Here he was introduced to a circle of 
pious friends, and thus the subject of religion 
was brought prominently under his notice. His 
health improved, and he once more resumed his 
professional duties. In a few weeks, however, 
he again became worse, and was obliged to re- 
turn to the place where he had formerly been 
benefited. Business detained Mrs. Howell some 
days behind him ; and, when she did arrive, she 
found him in a state of great uneasiness, from 
the apprehension that his death was drawing 
nigh. That evening, after his wife had read a 
portion of Scripture to soothe and comfort him, 
he asked her to pray v/ith him. This request 
took her by surprise. She was unaccustomed 
to pray aloud, and felt obliged to decline. 
" Then I must do it myself," said he ; and he 
did pray with her, which he had never done be- 
fore. He was in distress, and felt that God was 
his only refuge ; he felt that prayer was more 
than a duty — it was a privilege. On Sabbatli 
morning Mrs. Howell went to church, and it 
startled her to hear the name of her husband 
read out as a sick person desiring the prayers of 
the congregation. He had written a note to the 
minister to that etfect. Evorvthino- nosv indicated 



148 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

that Mr. Howell was in earnest. He read his 
Bible with a wish to understand it ; while his 
correspondence and conversation with friends 
partook much of a religious character. Partial 
recovery, followed by relapse, filled him with 
great distress ; and he could now only look tG 
God and cry for mercy. The Rev. Mr. Pitcairr 
paid him frequent visits. He found him alive tc 
the importance of salvation; but he did not 
seem to have an experimental knowledge of that 
one way of a sinner's acceptance with God, which 
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ reveals. 
He was urged to rest his hopes on Christ alone. 
This he complained he could not do. He con- 
fessed it was what was right, and what he indeed 
desired — but he could not believe ; and he felt 
himself without comfort, because he was with- 
out hope. It was manifest, however, that he 
was an earnest and anxious inquirer after gospel 
truth. He spoke with great kindness of the 
Christian friends who had visited and instructed 
him. He confessed that his understanding went 
along with their statements, but that his heart 
remained untouched. Was there not need for 
the Holy Spirit's work here ? His teachable- 
ness was very striking. There was no disposi- 
tion to start objections, nor any of that captious- 
ness which one has so often to encounter in 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 149 

dealing with men of talent. Another day, on 
enterinor his bed-chamber, Howell fluno: out his 
arm and grasped the hand of his faithful spirit- 
ual instructor with a cordiality that intimated 
how thankful he was for the visit. But he 
could not speak, and his fine countenance was 
expressive of inward agony. It was quite an 
appalling spectacle. " I silently gazed upon him 
for a minute or two," says Mr. Pitcairn, "and 
then said : ' God is our refuge in every time of 
distress and trouble. Before we attempt to con- 
verse we had best cast ourselves on God.' 
During the prayer it was very affecting to be 
continually interrupted with his whispered ' Yes, 
yes ; Amen, Amen.' We were very earnest in 
our supplications ; and, while we were yet speak- 
ing, it happened to us, as to Daniel of old, that 
God heard and answered. Indeed, I never was 
so sensible of an immediate answer to prayer." 
When prayer was over, the dying man was 
able to speak. He acknowledged, that after the 
former visit of Mr. Pitcairn he had experienced 
the purest happiness. The excitement, however, 
had debilitated Jiis frame ; and amid this weak- 
ness of body, " a cloud of horrible darkness," 
as he described it, had enveloped his mind. He 
could not believe anything. The truths which 
had been the joy and rejoicing of his heart van- 



150 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

ished from his hold like unsubstantial shadows. 
This had been connected with deep convictions 
of sin. As his wife sat by him, endeavoring to 
administer comfort, he had exclaimed : "0, I 
have been a great sinner !" and the tears rolled 
dovrn his cheeks. This was, no doubt, a prepa- 
ratory process, in order to show him his own 
sinfulness in the sight of God, and to give him 
a more thorough appreciation of the "great sal- 
vation." Conversation upon the leading doc- 
trines of the gospel was the means of restoring 
his mind to its former calmness. On another 
occasion the subject of conversion was discussed ; 
when he said, in reference to himself, "I do feel 
that a great change has taken place." From 
this acknowledgment his progress in the divine 
life was most marked. By day his time was 
spent in religious conversation, reading the Scrip- 
tures, and other religious exercises ; and by night 
his waking moments were spent in sweet medi- 
tation. One day Mr. Pitcairn compared the 
blessed alteration in his religious state to that 
of the groveling grub which has become a 
winged insect. He had burst the shell and 
escaped from a chrysalis condition ; his soul, 
now emancipated from the dark prison-house of 
ignorance and unbelief, was soaring above sub- 
lunary things, on the newly-expanded wings of 



or MORAL RKCOVERY. 151 

faith and hope. This idea charmed him ex- 
ceedingly, from his pecuhar fondness for natural 
science. He said it was a beautiful idea, and he 
rocked his head on the pillow, and almost wept 
with delight. About three weeks before his 
death he again relapsed into a state of deep 
spiritual apprehension. Upon Mr. Pitcairn call- 
ing, he said : " I know that doubts will spring- 
up unbidden, even when I am endeavoring to 
repress them." In allusion to a tract that had 
been left him, entitled "The Bliss of Heaven," 
he said : " I see that to be with Christ, or to 
have Christ . with us, is heaven. The place 
where is of inferior moment. But I cannot sub- 
due a continually rising idea that it is prema- 
ture in a person like me to entertain the hope 
of this bliss. All nriy former pursuits have been 
so exclusively of a worldly chai-acter, and my 
whole life has been marked by such forgetful - 
iiess of God, and indifference to the salvation 
which is by our Lord Jesus Christ, that I wish 
for your opinion whether I am not deceiving 
myself in this matter." Mr. Pitcairn looked at 
him with earnestness, and said : " Do you, as a 
poor perishing sinner, really believe from the 
heart in the Lord Jesus Christ ?" " yes," he 
replied, and appeared somewhat surprised at 
the question being put. •' Are you sure you 



152 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

are not deceiving yourself in this ? Have you 
the consciousness of believing in him and trusting 
in him, as the Son of God and Saviour of sin- 
ners ?" "I am perfectly conscious of doing so. 
I am as conscious of believing in Christ as I am 
of being alive." " Well, then, my dear friend, 
it is your faith in Christ, whicb the grace of God 
enables you to exercise, that gives a relish for 
the bliss of heaven. Whenever he gives us 
grace to believe, it cannot be premature to hope 
for what is promised and provided. And there 
must be a turning-point in the history of every 
man who is brought out of the darkness of his 
natural condition into the marvelous light of the 
gospel. I beheve you have passed that point." 
Here lie interrupted his kind friend, and said 
with eagerness: "I see it! I see it! I am 
sensible that the whole state of my views and 
feelings, in regard to religion, has undergone a 
great change ; but I only feared that I might be 
indulging a false hope." Then, after a little, in 
reply to his friend assuring him that he ought 
not to doubt the fact of " the good work " hav- 
ing been begun in him, he said : " No ; I ought 
not to doubt, and indeed I cannot doubt it. 
But I thought that your theory of salvation was 
too simple ; it seems too easy a way of getting to 
heaven'' Thus they got upon new ground. His 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 153 

friend spoke of the simplicity that distinguishes 
all the works of God, as contrasted with the 
complexity of human contrivances ; and, as an 
eminent naturalist, he caught the spirit of this 
remark, and felt its weight. A few days before 
his death, a new symptom of his complaint ap- 
pearing, he said to his wife : '* Ah ! my love, 
there are so many steps toward the last bourn.'* 
To which she replied : " You do not fear ?" 
*' No," he answered, " blessed be God, all dread 
is taken away. I rely wholly on the merits of 
my Saviour." "Can you say, 3fi/ Saviour f 
" Yes, My Saviour^ His path was now that 
of " the just, shining more and more unto the 
perfect day." His conversations evinced the 
experience of the humble yet rejoicing believer. 
"Perfect peace, perfect peace," was his dying 
testimony. With his latest breath he testified, 
in the most solemn and emphatic manner, to the 
wonderful work which the power of divine 
grace had wrought upon him. Thus, on his 
death-bed, did John Warren Howell, in the thir- 
ty-third year of his age, find mercy through faith 
in Christ. 



154 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 



THE VESSEL OF GOLD; 

OR, 

SANCTIFIED AFFLICTION. 



I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 

Isa. xlviii, 10. 

Holy Scripture abounds with striking figures 
and graceful illustrations of its sacred truths. 
It has pleased the Lord, by the use of sucli 
simiHtudes, to engrave a more lively and lasting 
impression upon many a reader's mind of tlic 
important lessons which his word sets forth. 
')^he "vessel" made "unto honor" is one of 
these graceful figures. The most precious met- 
ajs are the materials he employs in his divine 
illustrations. The silver and the gold, taken 
from the caverns of the earth, are represented 
as undergoing, beneath his sacred hand, the 
preparation and the process by which they be- 
come vessels of honor, glorious and beautiful to 
behold, meet for the Master's use. The precious 
ore is put into the furnace to be tried by its 
refining fires, that the dross may be purged 



OF MORAL RECOVEKl'. 155 

away, and that the gold may be purified and 
refined, even as the fine gold of the sanctuary. 
We are plainly told that the Lord himself is 
occupied in this mysterious and wondrous work, 
intently watching over the refining process, taking 
care that not one coal too much should be added 
to the furnace, lest the fire should exceed its 
necessary heat — lest it should burn too fiercely. 
His eye is ever on the molten gold, that when 
every bubble shall cease to rise, and every 
wrinkle shall subside, and when his own image 
shall be clearly and faithfully reflected there, as 
on the surface of a polished mirror, he may pro- 
nounce the process ended, and the work accom- 
plished. " He shall sit as a refiner and purifier 
of silver," says the prophet Malachi, speaking of 
the sanctified suflferings of his peculiar people, 
"and he shall purify and purge them as gpld ^^ 
and silver." And one of the most illustrious' 
of his suflfering and patient saints, who when put 
into the furnace was subjected to its most fierce 
and fier>^ trial, exclaims, "When he hath tried 
me, I shall come forth as gold." Job xxiii, 10. 
Thus also the Divine Refiner is heard to speak 
bv the words of the wise man : " Take away the 
dross from the silver, and there shall come forth 
a vessel for the finer." Prov. xxv, 4. 

But the Lord has not only his furnace-tires 



156 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

here below, but, according to the quaint but 
spiritual language of Leighton, he has his jew- 
elry and his workshop ; and there his vessels 
and jewels of gold are fashioned and gracefully- 
molded ; there they are adorned and engraven and 
polished ; and those which he especially esteems 
and desires to make most resplendent, he has 
oftenest his tools upon, that they may be fitted 
for his palace-mansions above, even as the ves- 
sels of pure gold and beaten work were wrought 
by the skill of Bezaleel, and fitted for the sanc- 
tuary of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. " In 
a great house," says the apostle, continuing the 
same fissure, " there are vessels of gold and sil- 
ver ;" and he afterward adds, " If a man purge 
himself from these," — that is, from the evil 
things of which he had been speaking, — "he 
shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and 
meet for the Master's use." 2 Tim. ii, 20, 21. 

About four years ago, I became first ac- 
quainted with Mary . There was nothing 

remarkable at the time about her manner or 
appearance, except that she was pleasing and 
amiable, and, though extremely neat in her per- 
son and dress, evidently more anxious about 
her outward adornment than about the inward 
graces of the Spirit. There was much of gentle 
courtesy in the reception she gave me, as the 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 157 

minister of the place ; but her conversation was 
common-place, and she seemed to take no inter- 
est in spiritual things. She was a mere woman 
of the world, a faithful wife, a watchful, tender 
mother ; industrious, thrifty, careful, and " troub- 
led about many things ;" generous and open- 
hearted, but impatient and high-spirited, and at 
times of a fiery temper. Though no longer a 
young woman, her large dark eyes, delicate and 
finely-formed featui-es, and clear complexion, still 
bore the trace of much personal beauty ; and her 
gay attire showed that vanity had not lost its liold 
upon her mind. She was in the world, and of 
the world. The little religion that she had was 
nominal and formal. Her temper was irritable, 
and she was easily provoked. I have been told 
by those who knew her well, that, though a kind 
and worthy woman in the main, she was at times 
extremely impatient, and even fi^ery in her tem- 
per, and that it was almost impossible at such 
times to please her. She would not brook con- 
trol or interference ; and if any of her household 
opposed her, or caused her any annoyance, she 
would make them flee before her. But it is the 
lovely effect of the grace of God to transfonn 
the nature of the lion into that of the lamb, 
and such a transformation was exhibited in the 
present instance. 



158 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

It is a wonderful work, tliis work of trans- 
forming grace ; and it has seldom appeared so 
wonderful to me as in tlie case which I now 
bring before the reader. It was wholly of God 
— of his word and Spirit. It commenced and it 
went on secretly and quietly, without noise, and 
" without observation," till all at once the first 
sign of it suddenly appeared, but even then in 
so slight and scarcely perceptible a form, that it 
was at first awhile almost unheeded. I heard 
that she was ill and confined to her house ; and 
when a visit was paid to her, I found that a 
fatal disease, which she had kept secret for 
many years, had already made fearful inroads 
upon her constitution, and that her long-con- 
tinued silence and concealment, even from her 
medical attendant, owing to a shrinking feeling 
of delicacy, had rendered recovery, humanly 
speaking, hopeless ; and her death, however long 
her sufferings might be protracted, appeared to 
be inevitable. I read a portion of Scripture 
and prayed with her; but, though she seemed 
pleased with my visit, I should not have said — 
from her manner, or from her replies to the 
remarks which I made — that she felt any real 
interest in the word of life. She was very ill ; 
but though her suflferings were intense, even 
then she made no complaint. Gradually her 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 159 

heart seemed to open to the reception of the 
word of God ; but she still said little, and her 
manner was not that of one Avho felt deeply. 

Many months had passed away, when one 
evening, on my visiting her, she spoke with more 
animation than usual, and told me that she had 
received great comfort from a chapter of the 
New Testament which had been read to her by 
one who had long shared in these visits. It was 
a portion of Scripture peculiarly suited to her 
state, and was, I have every reason to believe, 
the first which had come with power to her 
heart. I turned to it, and read it with her ; it 
Avas the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians, in 
which the apostle compares the mortal body to 
a tent or tabernacle to be taken down, and 
speaks of the joy with which he looked forward 
to being clothed upon with a house — not a tent 
— " a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." Verse 1. She had been peculiarly 
struck with those words which the apostle 
dwells upon and returns to : " We that are in 
this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." 
Verse 4. How well did the description agree 
with her own experience and suflPering ! These 
words had caught her attention on that very ac- 
count, and awakened her mind to the considera- 
tion of the vv^hole passage. At the conclusion 



160 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

of the visit, she said to me, " Pray leave the 
book open, sir, that I may mark the place, and 
may ask my son S., when he comes, to read it to 
me again." And this I heard from him she did, 
listening to it with a still deeper interest than 
before. 

Here I would remark that what struck me 
during the whole course of her illness was, the 
way in which Scripture lay like a seed in her 
heart. She listened with a quiet, solemn atten- 
tion ; but having heard the word, she kept it : 
it became rooted in the depths of her heart. 
Silently and secretly it took deep root, and it 
was gathering strength, and its vigorous growth 
was going on, as it were, under ground. After 
a time we saw the plant rise above the surface, 
yet it was at first as a tender blade. She now 
felt deeply the priceless value of the word of 
God, and it was evident to those who knew her 
well that she felt as deeply also its unspeakable 
importance. The book was not closed, nor the 
passage which had been read forgotten ; it was 
kept before her eyes, it was pondered in her 
heart ; her thoughts would, as it were, feed upon 
it, as she read it over and over again, when by 
herself ; and if her sons came in from their sep- 
arate homes, they were called upon to read 
again the chapter she had marked, while there 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 161 

were always those in the house whom she could 
ask to read the desh'ed portion to her. Some- 
times, when the words came close in their appli- 
cation to her own case, she would raise her hand 
and wipe away the quiet tears which filled her 
eyes. Her remarks were few, but always to the 
point; and I could plainly see that they came 
from her heart. But it was only by slow de- 
grees that these signs of the Holy Spirit's work 
in her heart were so plainly evident ; and on 
several occasions I and she of whom I spoke 
before, came away from visiting her, desponding 
as to the reality of the change, for we stood in 
doubt of her. But we were mistaken, as we 
afterward found ; we were looking too anxiously 
for the ear, when as yet the green blade only 
was visible. 

Such protracted and intense suffering has sel- 
dom been the lot of any human being, especially 
during those last three years, when she was no 
longer able to leave the house. She never 
knew what it was to find rest, except when, 
worn down by ceaseless pain, she sank into a 
short slumber, and this seldom lasted more than 
an hour at a time during the whole night; for 
her nights were sleepless as her days were rest- 
less. On no occasion of our frequent visits did 
we find her otherwise than in this restless state. 
11 



162 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Many passages of the Scriptures engaged her 
attention, and she might be said to be occupied 
with the statutes of her God by day and night. 
Often as I saw her, I scarcely remember a time 
when I did not find her with her Bible open on 
tlie table before her. " I do not wish to see any 
company now," she would say. "I like to be 
alone with my Bible.. This is my enjoyment." 
She complained on one occasion of the worldly 
conversation of some of her acquaintance who 
had come to sit with her on the previous Lord's 
day. Once she had enjoyed their society ; but 
she now felt grieved and disturbed by their 
coming, and wished herself alone with her Bible. 
I may here mention another passage of Scrip- 
ture which God had brought home to her heart 
with much assurance and comfort, on which she 
loved to dwell, and to which she often referred : 
" Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and 
it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but 
we know that, when he shall appear, we shall 
be like him ; for we shall see him as he is." 
1 John iii, 2. There were many more precious 
portions of the word of hfe which were life and 
peace to her soul. I would note especially the 
fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel, and that 
repeated promise, that most gracious assurance 
— *' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 163 

Death had no terror in her eyes. Her chief 
desire was to depart and be with Christ. She 
would gently chide her children when they 
spoke, as they would naturally do, of her. re- 
covery, and their hope that she might yet be 
spared to them. She would say, " If you wish 
to see me happy, you would not wish to keep me 
here." 

Her illness had now advanced rapidly, and we 
all supposed that she could not be much longer 
among us. In no position could she obtain ease 
from the incessant suffering she underwent. 
Vainly did she seek relief from changes ; some- 
times standing, then sitting, then lying down ; at 
times kneeling, and pressing her chest against 
the rim of the table. Her appetite failed her, 
and she began to dislike every kind of meat, and 
could only eat light and delicate sweet things 
which came unexpectedly to her. But even of 
these, or of any kind of food which she might 
afterward fancy, she took little. That which 
would have been quite insuflScient to satisfy 
the hunger of another person, afforded her sev- 
eral meals. Her weakness was very great, and 
she seemed gradually fading away ; but she had 
yet a long time to suffer on, though we often 
expected from her appearance that a few weeks 
would close her mortal course. Still not a mur- 



164 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

mur escaped her lips, and her testimony to the 
Lord's goodness was not only the submission of 
her will and the acquiescence of her mind to 
that which he had appointed, but one strain of 
rejoicing and thankfulness for his mercies to her- 
self. This was her constant theme, on which 
she delighted to dwell when conversing with a 
very few to whom she spoke of her inward 
state ; to. those few her testimony was clear, and 
decided, and unvarying; it was all love, praise, 
and thankfulness. As for her suffering, heavy 
and protracted and wearying indeed it was ; but 
she would smile Avhen we brought before her 
the inspired words of the apostle where he 
speaks of this " light affliction which is but for 
a moment," as if by faith she also was enabled 
to attain to the same experience. 

A single eye to Jesus Christ, and him cruci- 
fied, and a simple faith in him and in him alone, 
was the one chief point on which from first to 
last, and during the whole course of her illness, 
we endeavored to fix her attention — this, I re- 
peat, was the first thing, and the last thing, and 
the chief thing ; we desired to know nothing 
but Jesus Christ, and him crucified, in our long- 
continued intercourse Avith her; and she was 
enabled by his grace to receive him as the hght 
of life, and as- the hope of glory, into her sink- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 165 

ing heart. We were permitted to see her 
grounded and settled in the faith of Christ as 
on a rock. He had indeed become all and in 
all to her. Weary and heavy laden, she had 
gone to him and found rest to her soul ; and 
Christ having thus become the ground of all her 
hope and all her faith, the eflfect of this is here 
related. 

V/e, however, had but little to do in this 
work : we did but " tell her words whereby she 
might be saved," and "the Lord opened her 
heart, that she attended unto the things that 
were spoken " by us ; we did but simply set be- 
fore her the bread of life, and she gladly and 
thankfully received it as her food, and was 
strengthened with food in her soul. But we 
prayed with her and for her, that God would 
strengthen her by his Holy Spirit. She joined 
in our prayers with all her heart, and those 
prayers were heard. She was enabled by the 
Spirit to receive the things of the Spirit of God, 
which had before been foolishness unto her, 
neither could she know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned. We loved our Divine 
Pastor, and we loved her, and it was our privi- 
lege to set before her the Bread of Life, which 
if a man eat, he shall live forever. But it was 
altogether a quiet and almost a secret work ; the 



166 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Lord had withdrawn her from the glare and 
glitter of this poor disappointing world into the 
gloom of its shady places, there to lift up the 
light of his countenance upon her. He had 
brought her into the wilderness far from the 
noise and din of the busy haunts of men, there 
in the silence of that desolate solitude to speak 
with a still small voice in the depths of her soul, 
and to speak comfortably to her; and there 
was no display made before men, no voice of 
commendation heard — he made himself and his 
abounding consolations all-sufficient to her. 

She was truly a living illustration of that di- 
vine parable : " The kingdom of heaven is like 
unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in 
three measures of meal, till the whole was leav- 
ened." Matt, xiii, 33. The leaven pervaded 
the whole character, the principles, the temper, 
the words, the actions — all was thus leavened. 
We saw in her the truth and reality of that 
Scripture — "If any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature : old things are passed away ; be- 
hold all things are become new." 2 Cor. v, lY. 

I pass over a long space of time, and of pro- 
tracted suffering. It was marked ahke by the 
sure and steady progression of her fatal disease, 
and by the sure and steady advancement of 
God's work of sanctification within her. And 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 16*7 

as death, inevitable death, was to be the end of 
the one, so life, eternal life, was to be the issue 
of the other. To common observers little was 
known of the one or of the other. She was with- 
drawn so entirely from the world and the obser- 
vation of the people of the world ; she was seen 
by so few beyond the loving circle of her own 
family, and the weary season was so protracted, 
that she was almost as one forgotten. But 
doubtless all the while the angels of heaven 
were watching with intense interest the work of 
grace and spiritual growth, in its progression 
and development, rejoicing that another heir 
of glory was preparing for the courts above. 
And He who was sitting as the Refiner over 
his own work was dealing" more and more ten- 
derly with her as its painful consummation drew 
nigh. 

Her suffering was so great, and her state — I 
mean only that of her poor, weak, wasted body 
— altogether so truly pitiable, that she told me 
she could not help praying that her gracious 
Lord would remove her, and hoping that the 
time was now close at hand. She might well 
have poured forth the plaintive lament of Job, 
" Have pity, have pity on me, my friends ;" 
but when it might have been expected that some 
expression of complaint or murmuring would 



168 EEMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

escape her lips, she began with deep fervor of 
spirit to bless and praise God, and to say that 
surely no one was so blessed or so favored as 
herself, that she met with nothing but mercies 
from his hand — and a faint smile played over 
her face as she spoke ; but it was always with 
smiles that she told of that holy joy which had 
been so abundantly shed abroad in her heart by 
the Divine Comforter. Ill as she was, and suf- 
fering from ceaseless pain, and tried by the pe- 
culiar character of her dreadful disease, she was 
really happy. Oftpn when asked whether, if the 
choice were given her of returning to the world, 
to ease, and to health, and to enjoyment in this 
life, in her formerly ungodly state — or to be as 
she then was, never free from pain and suffering, 
and yet blessed as she also was with the saving- 
knowledge of Christ — often has she joyfully de- 
clared that she would not exchange her state for 
all that the world could offer to her. Earnestly 
as she longed to depart and be with Christ, 
there was no impatience in her desire. She did 
not wish, she would say, to hasten God's time ; 
she felt that it was " good that she should both 
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the 
Lord ;" and thus we, who went to speak to her 
of the Lord's mercies, and to instruct her in the 
saving truths of his gospel, came back feeling 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 169 

that we had been the learners in that sick cham- 
ber, and had been taught by her. 

There was indeed a marked difference between 
the commencement of the hfe of God in her 
soul, and its advancement as she drew nearer 
and nearer to the end of her pilgrimage. Her 
growth in grace was very remarkable. The full 
corn in the ear was fast ripening for the garner. 
The vessel of gold was about to receive its last 
and most exquisite finishings, before, like the pil- 
lar in the mystical temple of God, (Rev. iii, 12,) 
it was to be removed to the temple " to go no 
more out." 

From this period she passed the greater por- 
tion of her time in solitude, till within the last 
week of her life. She wished to be alone ; it 
was at her especial desire that no one remained 
with her. If her young and gentle daughter, 
the only unmarried child at home, or if her 
kind-hearted sister-in-law, who had come to 
nurse her, took up their needlework after the 
household duties of the day to sit by turns in 
her chamber, she would ask them not to stay ; 
she felt even their presence an interruption to 
her constant communion with her God. " She 
lay there praying," said the latter to me : " she 
seemed to fall asleep in prayer and to awake in 
prayer." Her sleep, as I have said before, was 



1*70 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

of short continuance, and the long hours of the 
night were usually sleepless hours. But she 
spoke of them as a delightful season, for they 
were cheered and brightened by sweet and 
pleasant . thoughts of Christ and of his love ; 
and her merciful and gracious Lord more than 
made up for that bodily suffering which knew no 
cessation, by the rich and inward consolations 
with which he abounded toward her. He might 
be truly said to supply all her need, according 
to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. " He 
giveth songs in the night," said one of her vis- 
itors to her. " He does indeed," she said, 
"and I am never lonely. I always feel God 
near me." 

But the time drew near when she was to die. 
It seemed wonderful that so slight a thread of 
life should have held on so long. It was evi- 
dent to those around her, that now she could 
not possibly survive many days. She was 
seized with a violent fit of coughing, which 
lasted a long time, and was succeeded by such 
a prostration of all her faculties, that it appeared 
as if their dissolution had already commenced. 
Every tinge of color faded from her countenance, 
and she herself was convinced that the hour 
was near at hand, and that she should never 
rally again. She now entreated her sister-in- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. l7l 

law never to leave her, though she grieved to 
keep her in the atmosphere of her chamber ; for 
her disease had made extensive progress; part 
of her body was already mortified, and it was 
now necessary to keep the window always open. 
This was not the least of her trials, from the 
pecuHar and dehcate cleanhness and neatness of 
her own habits. She was scarcely able to bear 
herself; and two of her relations who were 
most with her were seized with illness after her 
death, owing to the effluvia of the sick room. 
" I was obliged to pray," said another friend, 
"the last time I visited her, lest I should be 
overcome as I sat by her side, and she should 
perceive it and her feelings be hurt." She gave 
strict injunctions during those last few days to 
her dear old friend, as she always called her 
sister-in-law, that her children, particularly her 
youngest daughter, should seldom be permitted 
to come to her, and when she did come she for- 
bade her to stay beyond a few seconds. Won- 
derful strength and support were given to that 
true and devoted friend to bear all and to be 
with her constantly to the last. Strong love 
and deep piety were indeed needed to nerve her 
for so trying a service, and that service was 
made the more onerous from the fact that not a 
nurse among her poorer neighbors could be in- 



1*72 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

duced even for a few nights to supply her place. 
For nine days and nights this real friend never 
took off her clothes, nor lay down upon a bed. 

She had loved to have me and my wife with 
her ; and on one occasion, soon after the com- 
mencement of her illness, she sent us a touching 
message, saying that she had seen us pass, and 
that her heart had sunk when she found we did 
not come in to see her. But when the rapid 
change took place which immediately preceded 
her death, she had charged her sister-in-law not 
to send for us. We had at times called at the 
door, and had not been admitted, and we were 
kept in ignorance of her state, or nothing would 
have kept us away from the chamber of the 
dying saint. " Give them my kind respects and 
my love," she said, " but do not let them know 
till I am gone — do not send to them, it would 
make them ill." And thus we were deprived 
of what we should have deemed a high and de- 
lightful privilege, watching and praying beside 
one whom we had constantly seen during the 
last few years of her weary pilgrimage. How 
touching and how kind was the proof she gave 
of her sweet, unselfish spirit ! but how gladly 
would we have borne all, to have waited at the 
brink of the dark river when the cheering words 
were whispered to her inward spirit, *' The Mas- 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. l73 

ter is come, and calleth for thee," and when she 
passed joyfully over the river like a triumphant 
conqueror through Him that loved her and gave 
himself for her ! 

The day before her death, it was the wish of 
her relations that a medical man should be sent 
for. To please them she consented, though all 
medical aid had long been considered useless, 
and given up. After he had seen her and left 
the room, she said to her sister-in-law, " Go 
down after him, and ask him how long he thinks 
I shall continue." The answer she received was, 
" Not many hours : she may live out to-night, 
but she Avill scarcely see another night." She 
received the message with a smile of welcome : 
but her faithful friend sat down by her and said, 
" Now consider seriously ; you know that you 
are now going ; can you say from the bottom of 
your heart, that if you might recover, and be as 
well as ever, you would not accept the offer ? 
Are you really ready and willing to go ?" She 
lay quite silently : she did consider seriously, 
and said nothing for a Httle time. Then the 
smile came over her face again, and she said, 
" Yes, I have considered, and I am willing. I 
desire to depart, and to be with my Jesus." 
" She loved, she doated upon her husband and 
her children," said her old friend; "but she 



174 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

turned to me and said, * I can leave them all 
without a tear.' " 

After all that has been said, I feel that I can 
have left but a faint and imperfect impression on 
the reader's mind of that wearying and painful 
suffering which continued without any intermis- 
sion by day and night, and was spread over the 
whole course of those three long years, while all 
the time the more heavily the weight of pain 
pressed upon her, the more clear and bright be- 
came her faith and joy. 

I spoke, at the commencement of this account, 
of several passages of Scripture which were pe- 
culiarly precious to her, and on all of these her 
spirit seemed to rest the whole term of her ill- 
ness. But there was one of those passages 
which toward the last she could not bear to 
hear read for very joy. Like Fletcher of Made- 
ley, when dying her heart seemed to her too 
narrow to contain the fullness of the joy that 
was poured into it, and the dawning of the glo- 
rious light upon her spirit too dazzling to be 
borne by her : and she bade them read no more. 
This was the Scripture : ^' Beloved, now are we 
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be : but we know that, when he 
shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall 
see him as he is." 1 John iii, 2. that we 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 1*75 

could all realize the experience to which she 
was brought by the grace of God ! With what 
cold hearts, with what languid desires, do we 
too often read these glorious words which 
brought such rapturous joy to the soul of this 
expiring saint! Yes, even the vessel of gold, 
meet as it seemed for the Master's use, needed 
to be removed to the sanctuary above, before it 
could be found capable of containing the fullness 
of joy for which it was prepared. 

But let not the reader suppose that the great 
enemy of souls was absent from that hallowed 
chamber. She had told me long before how 
much she sufiFered from his temptations, how he 
would fain have instilled doubts and fears into 
her mind, and have persuaded her that her hope 
was a delusion, that she was not really a child 
of God, not washed from her sins in her Re- 
deemer's blood. Now that his time was short, 
though he knew that he could not pluck her out 
of the Father's hand, he seemed to exercise his 
utmost malice to buffet and to harass her spirit. 
During two nights previous to her departure, 
she suffered keenly from his sharp attacks, and 
this lasted through the whole of the one night, 
and for full two hours of the other. She told 
lier friend who was Avatching by her, that she 
continued to pray, but that it seemed to her 



1*76 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

that the more she prayed the more he harassed 
her : and her countenance, as she spoke, showed 
the painful agony of the conflict she endured. 
At last she cried out, " I have gained the victory ; 
he is gone, he is gone !" " I could always see," 
said her friend, *' when the Holy Spirit was work- 
ing in her, by her countenance ; it was so joyful, 
so beautiful !" 

Shortly before she died, when one of her 
neighbors came in to watch beside her, with her 
sister-in-law, as they sat in silence they saw her 
beckoning, and one of them hastened to her and 
said, " Did you want anything ? did you beckon 
for me ?" " no, not for you," she answered 
with a smile ; ** I want my heavenly Father." 

As she departed she extended her arms, and 
cried out, ** He is coming now. He is coming 
now !" "I shall never forget her beautiful 
countenance," said her neighbor to me, " or how 
beautifully she smiled before she went." *' Her 
face," said her sister-in-law, " when she died, was 
like that of an angel." She looked indeed as if 
she felt that the suffering of this present time 
was not worthy to be compared w4th the glory 
that should be revealed in her. 

This is a strange account, the thoughtless 
reader may say. My only reply is this : it is a 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. iT*? 

true one ; it is all true, there is no exaggeration : 
nay, it is impossible for words to convey a faith- 
ful portraiture of the transfonnation ejQfected by 
the grace of God in her, whose almost hidden 
life I have attempted to describe in the foregoing 
pages. 

This was no common case. During the whole 
of my ministry for the last thirty years, I have 
seen but one other such sufferer, but one such 
instance of a disease so painful, and not one of 
a disease so loathsome, not only to the suflferer 
herself, but to those around her. Never have I 
seen a more simple, childlike trust ; a more hum- 
ble, earnest faith in Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
fied, or a more realizing experience of his finished 
work of righteousness, who " was made sin for 
us," though he " knew no sin, that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 
V, 21. It was in "her Jesus," as she loved to 
say, that she trusted entirely for salvation. 
How frequently, in the midst of her own ago- 
nies, would she quiet herself by saying, " But 
what are my sufferings to His ? I deserve to 
suffer ; but he did no sin, he only suffered for 
us." It is not only the testiaiony of ourselves, 
who saw her from time to time, that she never 
murmured, but bore all that the Lord laid upon 
her with a saint-like patience which was as new 
12 



178 



REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 



to her natural character as it was beautiful and 
satisfactory to witness ; but it was also the testi- 
mony of that faithful friend who never quitted 
her, who waited upon her by day and by night, 
that she never heard a complaint from her li^ps \ 
she only prayed that the Lord would give her 
patience. "AH that I did for her was right," 
she said : she never murmured ; she was thank- 
ful for everything. The contrast of this state 
to what she had before been, made this so re- 
markable as to be evidently the work of God 
in her. 

It is said that in the island of Ceylon, the 
pearl-fishers, when they have dived beneath the 
waves for their precious treasures, and gathered 
a large quantity of the pearl-oysters, heap them 
together, and leave them to rot under the burn- 
ing sun of that tropical climate, until the whole 
atmosphere around is poisoned with the loath- 
some effluvia of the corrupting mass. And then, 
when the work of corruption has taken place,' 
the fair and lustrous pearls are found loosened 
from their putrifying inclosures ; and the most 
precious are eagerly collected to be transferred 
to a high destiny, even to gleam among the 
jewels of the great ones of the earth. May we 
not find in her of whom I have spoken the 
lovely reality of this type and similitude, even 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 179 

the case of one whose purified and precious 
spirit was taken away from the corruption of her 
poor mortal tenement, to shine among those 
whom He who is Lord of lords, and King of 
kings, will claim as his own, in that day when he 
maketh up his jewels ? 



180 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 



LAST DAYS OF THE LATE EARL OE DUCIE.'* 



It has been my lot to witness tlie closing scene of 
many a man's mortal career; and various, both 
in character and degree, has been the experience 
which, at those solemn seasons, has come under 
my observation. I have seen joy, and triumph, 
and holy assurance, equal to those of Henry 
Moreton, the late Earl of Ducie; I have seen 
bodily distress, groaning, anguish, far greater than 
his ; but never in the case of any one individual 
have I witnessed the combination of both, as in 
his last hours. I say it deliberately, that as an 
exhibition of grace on the one hand, and of nature 
on the other, — of grace, uplifting the soul to God. 
fixing, and concentrating, and absorbing it in the 
love of Christ ; and of nature, exerting its dread 
power in distress of the body, — this was the 
most instructive termination of life I ever beheld 
— the most impressive, the most profitable. ] 
learned then, as never before, what God can do • 

"' Abridged from a Funeral Discourse hy the Rev 
Capel Molyneux, B. A. 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 181 

yet, what nature also will do ! I learned — inval- 
uable lesson ! — that, though the believer has re- 
ceived the adoption of the Spirit, he has not receiv- 
ed the adoption of the body. No ! that of a truth is 
not here, not yet. Great God, hasten it in thy time ! 

The earl's career as a man of God, as the sub- 
ject of saving grace, had not been long. Till 
within a late period, comparatively speaking, he 
had been a mere man of this world — living in the 
world, and for the world, and nothing else. His 
temperament, habits, character, conversation, were 
all signally of this stamp : to say the least of it, 
he was, naturally and practically, far from God. 
His constitutional tendency also was reserved, even 
to a fault ; and so it remained after his conversion : 
so much so, indeed, that it was exceedingly diflS- 
cult to ascertain, in private and friendly intercourse, 
the real spiritual state of the man. He would 
not be drawn out. And this must be borne in 
mind ; for, in reference to this particular, the 
power of grace at last was signally apparent, and 
nature was utterly vanquished. 

But, though his career as a Christian man was 
not long, do not suppose that his Christian history 
was limited to a death-bed repentance. Verily, 
no ! I am not going to describe a death-bed re- 
pentance. I never saw a death-bed repentance 
of this character : never such fruit, such expres- 



182 ' REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

sion of grace, or grace so employed. The death- 
bed may serve to develop, and mature, and 
marvelously expand into flower and fruit the 
seed already sown; but when it is then for the 
first time deposited^ — admitting it to be so, — 
scant must be the harvest it is likely to produce. 
Not so with Henry Moreton. His career had 
been long enough to estabhsh his heart, and jus- 
tify his profession. Years before his death had 
the Lord brought him to the knowledge and 
reception of the truth ; and during that period, 
though personally reserved, his conduct and char- 
acter were clearly demonstrative of the change 
that had passed upon him. He was a decided 
man ; decided in whatever he embraced ; and 
decided, therefore, for the Lord, when he embraced 
the Lord's cause. Here there was no question or 
ambiguity whatever; no shrinking from honest 
confession, no halting between two opinions, no 
wavering between Christ and the world : I ever 
felt that, though impervious to observation as to 
internal experience, yet outwardly in conduct and 
character he was unequivocally on the Lord's 
side. This was proved whenever occasion served. 
Witness the weekly meetings held at his house 
in Belgrave-square, when God's truth was set forth 
without compromise, and that before a mixed 
assembly, including many of the children of this 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. 183 

world — full of vanity and folly ; but welcomed 
there, in hope that a ray of the light from heaven, 
entering their souls, might bring them to the 
cross of Christ, and make them monuments of 
grace, to the glory of God. These meetings in 
his own house — meetings in which he rejoiced 
because of their profit to himself, because of the 
prospect of usefulness to others, and because of 
the proof they afforded of his hearty and devoted 
approval of Bible truth — demonstrated whose he 
was, in whom he gloried, and with whom, in the 
sight of all men, he desired to be closely and un- 
mistakably identified. 

Also, let his own immediate neighborhood and 
estate — let schools and missionaries, and other 
helps to the propagation of truth, set on foot and 
supported by himself, and greatly cared for, — to 
say nothing of the aid rendered by personal super- 
vision and liberality to the County Scripture 
Readers' Association, and other kindred institu- 
tions, — I say let all these things testify to the 
bent of his mind, and the tendency of his heart. 

On Sunday, May 29th, it was intimated to him 
that recovery, humanly speaking, was impossible. 
He was bid to keep quiet, and avoid any needless 
exertion or excitement; but his reply was, "/ 
have been silent too long : T must say ivliat God 
is doing for my soul" From that monjent his 



184 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

testimony began ; and, before that testimony is 
given in his own words, let me assure you that 
all was delivered in a manner and mode of utter- 
ance the calmest and most deliberate possible. 
It was the expression, as to manner and deport- 
ment, as well as utterance and sentiment, of a 
man who Jcnew where he was, — what ivas before 
him, — and tvhat he said. It was the deliberate 
expression of a soul consciously standing on the 
brink of eternity, determined to tell what, with 
such a prospect in view, truth is. 

All reserve was gone. He spoke out his whole 
soul, — spoke simply, evidently, completely, as he 
actually was, as he felt himself to be ; exhibiting, 
as in a glass, his inmost thought and whole expe- 
rience. Natural reserve had been before strength- 
ened, rather than diminished, by Christian experi- 
ence. The recollection of his career, when not a 
Christian man, made him silent when he became 
one. He felt, he said, he ivas not the man to speak ; 
he had lived too long without God and for the 
world; none would listen to such a one; his sins had 
been too great, too prominent ; he must be dumb, 
and go softly. We honor the feeling, though we 
lament its influence and result. It was a mistake, 
but on the right side ; and it was rectified, so far 
as past mistakes can be rectified, at the last. He 
spoke more, and more to the purpose, in the last 



OF MORAL RECOVERY, 185 

few days, than many of us speak in as many, or 
double that number of years. 

The mind was not only calm, but collected and 
able ; so much so, that I beheve, till within the 
last very few hours of his existence, he could have 
transacted any complicated business as well as 
at any former period of his life. His testimony 
was deliberate and reflective, as well as decisive 
and unreserved. 

Much, of course, was said incidentally: much, 
deeply affecting and instructive, which could not 
be recorded ; originating in some passing circum- 
stance, and for its value dependent on such cir- 
cumstance, yet ever appropriate, and indicative 
of the spiritual tendency of his mind. But 
enough was, as it were, systematically delivered 
to demonstrate what we desire to show, — the 
blessedness of his experience, and the power of 
grace in the redemption of the soul. 

At the commencement of his dying experience, 
he said, " I have dishonored God enough in my 
life ; let me honor him in my death. Who can 
tell what the words of a dying man may do ?" 

Again : " I thank God I have found a Saviour, 
and such a Saviour! Never doubt him. 0, 
what a God has he been to me ! Nothing is too 
hard for him. Never doubt him. If Christ were 
to be doubted, who ought to doubt so much as 



186 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

I ? If one sinner ever was greater than another, 
I am he ; but Christ is able to save to the utter- 
most those who come to him. I have no fears : 
I thank my God that I feel clear of all my sins. 
O God ! do what thou wilt ; but suffer me not 
to be tempted above what I am able to bear." 
To his friends : " Only those who have been for- 
given much, love much. Come and stand by 
me when I am passing away: pray for me in 
that hour when flesh and blood shall shake — 
pray that God may be with me then." 

To one associated with him in the Committee 
of the Gloucester Scripture Readers' Association, 
of which Lord Ducie was President, he said : 
" Give my dying remembrances to all the mem- 
bers of the Committee ; and tell them that I speak 
from the confines of eternity — that the importance 
of the work in which we are engaged never ap- 
peared to me half so momentous as it now does. 
Beg them not to be discouraged by the removal 
of so many of the members to their rest, but to 
be doubly zealous and active. Tell them that 
my last thoughts will be with them, and my last 
prayers will be for their continuance in their great 
work." 

His own missionary employed on his own imme- 
diate property, and in the neighborhood, he thus 
addressed : "Tell the people that, although I have 



OF MORAL RECOVERY. ISY 

not been able to be among them much, my heart 
has been with them. Tell them that Christ died 
for them. Tell them that I have found a Saviour 
who can save to the uttermost. Tell them never 
to doubt. My darkness has been turned into 
light, and I accept God's promises in the fullest 
way, I have no more doubts. Impress upon all 
that it is not too late to come to Christ ; that 
even the greatest sinner can be saved. Pray for 
me, that, when I am passing through the valley 
of the shadow of death, I may have no doubt. 
I know that that will be the trying time ; but so 
much has been done for me this night, that I 
have no doubt even for that time. I know that 
God is with me. Tell the people that I die a 
Christian." 

To another of his friends : " It requires no deep 
learning to go to God. A very little Bible learn- 
ing will take us to the throne of grace." 

To his principal servants, specially sent for, and 
gathered round his bed, during the last day of 
his sojourn, he said : " I would not pass away 
without saying a word to you, to let you know 
what the Lord has done for me. A short time 
since, this heart was cold, and dead, and obdurate ; 
but now he has turned my darkness into light. 
It is not of myself, — no work of my own, — but 
of grace. I have no doubt. I could not doubt. 



188 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Do not you doubt ; for the vilest have obtained 
mercy. May the peace of God be with you all ! 
And may the light of his countenance shine up- 
on you, as it does upon me at this moment 1" 

And to all around : " Tell ray friends that it is 
in the clear light of reason that I have seen God. 
Think not it is enthusiasm : I speak the words of 
soberness and reality." 

Among the last of his utterances were these 
precious words: ^'•Blessed be God, my title is 
clear to mansions beyond the sTciesy Indeed, the 
key-note to all his utterances was his clear, un- 
wavering, happy, but humble assurance. There 
never was a cloud, — never a doubt expressed, or 
even, as we believe, for a moment entertained. 
His experience in this respect was unvaried. His 
soul reflected Christ ; and the surface was calm, 
still, unruffled. "Let me die the death of the 
righteous, and let my last end be like his !" 

But this is not the entire picture. On Wednes- 
day night his great conflict began, and from 
that time continued till within the last half-hour 
of his mortal existence. It was terrible — not 
from its acute sufiering and actual agony; not 
from spiritual darkness or doubt ; but — from the 
actual process of dissolution. It was distress that 
admits of no explanation. Yet here it seemed 
as though death could not master its victim. 



OP MORAL RECOVERY. 189 

The sting was gone ; but death, even without the 
sting, is — and is meant to be so seen — a solemn, 
an appalling thing. 

But enough: his end was still; still as the 
peace that reigned within. There was, at last, no 
effort, no struggle : • nature was prostrate, and 
ceased to act. The spring of life stopped. His 
spirit was let go, and it quitted the prison-house 
for " the house not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens." 

The truth of God was signally demonstrated 
in this case. As well deny that suffering is suf- 
fering, or peace is peace, as deny this. Henry 
Moreton's experience was simply Scripture theory 
verified in fact — Bible portraiture exhibited in 
living reality. The gospel is proclaimed and 
proffered as a remedy for perishing man : Henry 
Moreton took it, applied it, and it did its work. 
It left uncured just that which, for the present, it 
professes not to touch — the body ! but the rest, 
the soul, it cured. The soul was triumphant, the 
body groaned. This is not fine-spun argument, 
but honest fact ! Unless we deny the fact, infi- 
delity perishes ! Go, infidel, to the death-bed of 
a Christian man! Thy theory will crumble to 
atoms. Facts are stubborn things : on a Chris- 
tian's death-bed they are more, — they are abso- 
lutely convincing things. 



190 REMARKABLE EXAMPLES 

Mark the only kind of religion that will stand 
— Christ in the heart, and the heart given to 
Christ. " Give your heart fresh and young to 
the Lord," said he of whom I have been speaking. 
Christ and the world will not do : it must be 
Christ, and not the world-; Christ, and the 
world renounced 



THE END. 



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